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The National HeraldA wEEkly GrEEk-AmEriCAN PuBliCATiON

March 8-14, 2014

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NEW YORK – Eight Greek-Americans, led by John PaulDeJoria with a net worth of $4billion and John Catsimatidis at$3.1 billion, are on the 2014Forbes 400 – The Richest Peoplein America list that is topped byBill Gates. AT $72 billion, Gatesreclaimed the top spot fromMexico’s Carlos Slim.

Warren Buffet, Larry Ellison,and the Koch Brothers, Charlesand David, round out the topfive positions on the list. BillGates, at 58 years old, is theyoungest in the top 10, and for-mer New York mayor MichaelBloomberg is number 9 at $31billion.

The National Herald willpublish its annual list of The 50Wealthiest Greek-Americans inits March 8-14 edition.

DeJoria, 70 years old, who isalso of Italian descent, is num-ber 110 on the list. He lives inAustin, TX and built his fortuneselling hair products andtequila. Catsimatidis, whomade his first foray into elec-toral politics last year by run-ning for mayor of New York, is65 years old and has holdingsin oil, real estate, and supermar-kets. He is number 161.

James S. Davis, whose listingas number 161 includes his fam-ily’s wealth, is the owner of NewBalance running shoes. He is 70years old and lives in Newton,MA.

Tom Gores of Beverly Hillshas amassed $2.7 billion in theprivate equity business and is201st on the list. At 49 yearsold, he is the youngest Greek-American. His 60 year old

Eight Greek-AmericansOn Forbes’400 Richest

TNH Staff

LOS ANGELES, CA – NotedGreek-American film producerAnthony Katagas, who hasbacked more than 30 films, hitthe jackpot at the 2014 Acad-emy Awards, winning an Oscaras one of the producers for theCivil War drama 12 Years ASlave that was in tight competi-tion with a host of other movies.

Katagas has New York roots.His mother, Anastasia Kapsiswas born in the United Statesand his father Stelios, who wasborn in Piraeus, came to LongIsland in 1969 at age 31. Kata-gas’ brother, Alexander, lives inAstoria.

“I don’t have the words todescribe the joy and happinessAnthony has given us. Even asa child he told us he was goingto be famous and that everyonewas going to talk about him, wedidn’t really believe it,” his fa-ther Stylianos Katagas told TheNational Herald. “”I could neverimagine that God would bless ahumble immigrant like me to

see his son to see his son winone award after another.”

Katagas' mother was at theOscars, along with Katagas’ wifeBrandi and their two older chil-dren, Ella and Zoe were, butStylianos was unable to travelto Los Angeles, so he watchedthe ceremony on television.

Katagas is known to readersof The National Herald since theautumn of 2006 when he choseAstoria for to be the backdropfor scenes in the 2008 film TheAccidental Husband that starredColin Firth and Uma Thurman.

Katagas and his wife havetwo other children, Emily, 6, andGeorge, who is 2 ½ years old.The two youngest childrenwatched on TV with their grand-father.

His aunt, Georgia Kapsis,married John Bastidis of Astoria,who has two brothers, while un-cle Thanassi operates a businessin Astoria and another, ClassicCleaners, on 29th St.

Katagas, a 1992 graduate ofWestern New England Univer-sity in Springfield, Mass., beganworking in the business as anassistant director on indepen-dent films in 1997. Shortlythereafter he production man-aged his first film for Miramax,a low budget version of Ham-let.

In 1999 Katagas started KeepYour Head Productions whichhad in mind the producing andsupporting independent film inNew York City. He producedfour film for the company in-cluding, Homework, which in2004 earned him a nominationfor an Independent SpiritAward, The Producers Award.

“We have been in contactwith Anthony since hearing ofthis great news. We couldn’t bemore proud.” said Kathy Pappas,Director of Alumni Relations forWestern New England.

Greek-Am. KatagasWins Academy AwardFor 12 Years a Slave

By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer

NEW YORK – There is a touchof the poetic to the story of howthe renowned architect SantiagoCalatrava came to be the designarchitect for the new Church ofSt. Nicholas at Ground Zero,whose function is contribute tothe renaissance of both theDowntown community and theparish, to help visitors transcendthe painful memories of 9/11,and to express the little church’sByzantine heritage.

He was with his daughter,

Sofia, in Greece, sailing in theDodecanese, visiting the islandof Symi, the birthplace of thethree Graces, when he receiveda phone call with the news thathe was invited to participate inthe competition to design St.Nicholas.

The conjunction of the calland the place he received it arenot a coincidence. His profoundlove and appreciation for thecreations of Hellenism and Or-thodoxy must have counted formore than his impressive re-sume, giving the decision mak-ers no doubt that the man

whose dramatic arches framedthe “golden games” of the 2004Olympics would pour his heartand soul into the design of thesanctuary that will succeed thebeloved little church that wascrushed on that cruel day.

He told TNY “as a young stu-dent I took trips to see theAcropolis and Hagia Sophia. Ifelt I had discovered the mostbeautiful sequence of spaces inthe world. To me, Hagia Sophiais the Parthenon of the Ortho-doxy.”

Catralava on Design of St. Nicholas

Aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush Arrives in Saronic GulfThe Eastern Mediterranean has been both a military hotspot and a popular vacation spot formore than 3000 years. People train in sail boats in the waters of the Saronic Gulf, outsidePiraeus, back dropped by the United States nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS George H.W.Bush, Wednesday, March 5. The 1,092 feet (333 meters) carrier which can carry 6,000 personnel,one of the world’s largest warships, will be deployed in the U.S. 6th Fleet's area of responsibility.

AP PHOTO/THANASSiS STAvrAkiS

Admiral Stavridis Discusses Options in Ukraine

TNH Staff

WASHINGTON, DC – Greek-and Jewish-American leadersfrom The Order of AHEPA, theAmerican Hellenic Institute(AHI), and B’nai Brith Interna-tional who participated on athree-country mission to Israel,Cyprus, and Greece in Januarypresented their findings at brief-ing held on Capitol Hill on Feb.25.

The briefing was held in co-operation with the Congres-sional Hellenic-Israeli Alliance,which celebrated its one -yearanniversary on the followingday on Capitol Hill at an eventin Rayburn House Office Build-ing which was co-hosted by theAmerican Jewish Committee(AJC,) the Hellenic AmericanLeadership Council (HALC) andthe Cyprus Federation of Amer-ica.

Two dozen members of Con-gress and their staff, includingsenior House Foreign AffairsCommittee members, attendedthe celebration.

CHIA Celebrates Deeper Hellenic-Jewish Ties


BROOKLYN – Author JeffreyEugenides was the featuredspeaker of the February 26 edi-tion of “Eat Drink & Be Literary”the Brooklyn Academy of Mu-sic’s (BAM) popular series of lit-erary evenings where partici-pants can “raise a glass andshare a meal with some of to-day’s most renowned authors”and listen to live music, in thiscase, jazz.

After the dinner, “the fea-tured author gives a reading anddiscusses his/her creativeprocess.”

The guests who filled theBAMCafe, with its noble nor-man windows and arches oflights beneath the ceiling hungwith pi�atas of the signs of thezodiac, were welcomed byBAM’s president, Karen BrookesHopkins.

She announced that theevening’s presentation is the in-

augural event of the HellenicHumanities Programs at BAMco-presented by BAM and theOnassis Cultural Center NY, ex-

plaining that after a number ofsuccessful events in recent yearsthey have expanded their part-nership through a two-yeargrant from the Onassis Founda-tion (USA) “supporting a newinitiative to further Hellenicideals and culture in the 21stcentury.”

Hopkins acknowledged theFoundation’s Executive Director,Ambassador Lucas Tsillas andits Director of Cultural Affairs,Amalia Cosmetatou. Tsillas kepthis promise to offer only a fewwords, including “appreciation,admiration, gratitude andfriendship,” for BAM.

After noting the basis of theevening’s combination of food,wine and intellectual fare in thesymposia of ancient Greece, Tsil-las invited the guests not onlyto the re-opening of the OnassisCultural Center in Manhattan,which is undergoing renovation,but to the events Onassis Cul-

Eugenides: Eat, Drink, and Be Literary

Rep. Gus Bilirakis, who co-chairs the Congressional Hellenic Israel Alliance (CHIA) with Rep.Ted Deutch, address guest at the celebration of the first anniversary of the caucus.

Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesexwon the Pulitzer Prize for2003.

By Theodore Kalmoukos

BOSTON, MA – Retired U.S.Admiral James Stavridis, cur-rently Dean of the FletcherSchool of Law and Diplomacyat Tufts University, made state-ments to TNH discussing thedangerous situation as develop-ing in Ukraine.

“There are no good militaryoptions,” Admiral Stavridis said.However, NATO should provideintelligence, information, logis-tics support, financial support,and advice to the Ukrainian gov-ernment and its military forces.”Nonetheless, one of Stavridis’specific recommendations is tomobilize NATO forces to, at aminimum, defend the Ukraine.

The former NATO SupremeAllied Commander Europe(SACEUR), the first Naval offi-cer to hold that distinction,Stavridis told TNH he would ad-vise President Obama to isolateRussia “both diplomatically andeconomically, with a focus onsanctions that would weaken

Ex-SACEUR HeadSays NATO Forces Need to be Ready

TNH/COSTAS BEJ

By Andy Dabilis

ATHENS – Greece’s major op-position Coalition of the RadicalLeft (SYRIZA) leader AlexisTsipras has threatened to reviewor reverse the country’s privati-zation selloff and prosecute of-ficials if he comes to power, af-ter the government said it hadreceived only a single bidder todevelop the old Hellenikon air-port site that was supposed tobecome an urban park.

After plans by the govern-ment to develop the former Hel-lenikon national airport site onAthens’ coast got only a singlebidder as other companies with-drew with complaints theprocess was flawed, Greece’s op-

Tsipras: He’dReverse SaleOf Hellenikon

TNH Staff

MARIUPOL, Ukraine – "Greecehas you completely covered andprotected,” Greek Deputy Primeand Foreign Minister EvangelosVenizelos told representatives ofthe populous Greek communityin Mariupol, Ukraine, this weekat the offices of the Federationof Greek Associations.

Venizelos reassured themthat “our country would use allmeans at its disposal, nationaland European, to provide youwith the protection and care yourequire in the difficult momentsyou are li living.” He said theUkraine must not become a bat-tlefield again. We do not wantanother cold war that will againdivide the European continent.This must be avoided we willavoid it."

"Greece , as the presidingcountry of the European Union

Venizelos toUkraine Grks:You’re Safe

By Constantinos E. Scaros

Few people have affectedlives by the millions throughoutthe world as did Harry Truman.He carved a political path forhumanity as a whole – and forGreece in particular – thatshaped the course of eventsthroughout the second half ofthe 20th century and into the21st.

March 12 marks the 67th an-niversary of the Truman Doc-trine, a vital component of whyensuing generations of Greeks,and their Greek-American de-scendants, knew about the So-viet Iron Curtain only from his-tory books and documentariesrather than from the personalexperience of being one of itsminion states.

ACCIDENTAL PRESIDENTThrust into the presidency on

the morning of April 12, 1945when President Franklin Roo-sevelt – the longest serving pres-ident in American history, hewas in his fourth term – diedsuddenly of a cerebral hemor-rhage – Truman first sought totend to Mrs. Roosevelt(Eleanor), asking her what hecould do for her. “No,” she fa-mously replied, “"Is there any-thing we can do for you? Youare the one in trouble now!"

Mrs. Roosevelt was referringto the fact that Truman, whohad been vice president for amere 82 days – only since thebeginning of Roosevelt’s fourthterm – and barely met with the

The TrumanDoctrine inIts 67th Year

Greek-American film producerAnthony Katagas.

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COMMUNITY2 THE NATIONAL HERALD, MARCH 8-14, 2014


ASTORIA – The PrometheusGreek Teachers Association cele-brated the life and work ofrenowned Cretan author NikosKazantzakis in word, song anddance on March 2 at the Arch-diocesan Hellenic Cultural Centerin Astoria.

The featured speaker, Dr.Thanasis Maskaleris, founding di-rector at the Center for ModernGreek Studies at San FranciscoState University presented a lec-ture titled “The Humanistic Spiritin the Work of Nikos Kazantza-kis.”

Eleftheria Oikouta, the Asso-ciation’s vice president, was theevent’s Emcee and the guestswere also greeted by its presi-dent, Dr. Demosthenes Triantafil-lou.

After opening prayers offeredby Fr. Vasilios Louros, represent-ing St. Demetrios Cathedral, andthe singing of the national an-thems by young soprano FloraKirou, Oikouta requested a mo-ment of silence to mark the 40day memorial of Dr. NicholasKladopoulos, the former directorof the Archdiocese Office ofGreek Education.

Apropos of the community’sannual celebration of Greek let-ters which inspired the event, theprogram began with a recitationof poems, one of which was titledHtiste Sholeia – Build Schools –by Christina Varvatsouris andJoanna Alexandropoulos, stu-dents of St. Demetrios’ AfternoonGreek school.

Triantafilou put the event intohistorical perspective, illustratingthe fact that Kazantzakis’ repu-tation has only grown with timeby noting that when he proposedto write his dissertation about theCretan genius, he was told thatno college would ever hire him.

He told the audience thatwhile Kazantzakis was refused avisa by the United States at theheight of the Cold War due to hisradical political views, he said ofgroups like Prometheus, “webring him here.”

Each of the speakers offeredtheir perspectives on perhaps thegreatest Greek intellectual of the20th century. Notwithstanding

Kazantzakis’ battles with the es-tablished church during very con-servative times in Greece, his loveof God and his reverence forChrist was blended with his loveof the people and his pioneeringenvironmental views.

Triantafilou also noted thatspirituality is not limited to its re-ligious meaning. He said there isa diachronic, spiritual dimensionto Hellenism that is broad andmultidimensional, which thegreat author represented.

Mikis Theodorakis was repre-sented at the event by his musicalsettings of poems of OdysseusElitis.

The children’s choir of the af-ternoon Greek school of the ofthe Ascension Church, of whichTriantafilou is the director, led bymusic teacher Erasmia Vouke-latos, delighted the guests withthe songs Ena to Helidoni, to Ko-hiri and Tis Dikeosinis IliosNoitos.

A video about Kazantzakisproduced by Dr. John Nathenaswas screened, and then Dr.George Melikokis introduced pro-fessor Maskaleris, who declaredthat “it is a special joy to be herein Astoria with you.”

After noting that Kazantzakispaid tribute to his father by mod-elling the character Captain Mi-

halis after him, Maskaleros spokeof the importance of mothers inthe intellectual life of children bysharing that as a child his mother,who did not read, would ask himto recite what he was studyingby the light of the oil lamp intheir home in Arcadia. “You havemy blessing – I want you to be-come a good man.”

Maskaleros then recited amantinada, a traditional Cretanrhymed couplet, that refers to aman’s two mothers, the womanwho gave him birth, and hishomeland, but Kazantzakis’ workspeaks beyond his Cretan andGreek brothers and sisters to hu-manity at large.

Maskaleros said Kazantzakis’vast reading and extensive travelsenabled him to gain deep andsubstantial knowledge of all ofmankind.

In his book Report to Greco,which included some of his deep-est intellectual explorations,Kazantzakis expresses his faith inthe mind as bridge builder thatcan unite and harmonize thegreat opposites of the humancondition: body/soul,feeling/thought, the written/theunseen, the national/ the inter-national, matter/spirit – Zorbaand the Boss.

“Understanding increases and

the individual is enriched by thissynthesis of opposites,” he saidMaskaleros.

After the lecture, DemetriosFilios, recent past president of theGeros tou Morea chapter of ThePan Arcadian Federation ofAmerica - Maskaleras’ roots arein Arcadia, introduced the latter’srecent book, The TerrestrialGospel of Nikos Kazantzakis: Hu-mans Are the Saviors of theEarth.

It is an anthology of passagesfrom Kazantzakis’ work aboutNature and the workers of thesoil, and Maskaleros elaboratedon Kazantzakis’ humanitarianand environmental concerns andhis belief in the importance ofmaintaining man’s connection tothe soil.

He summed up Kazantzakis’thought by saying “man has anobligation to save the earth; with-out saving it he cannot be saved,and if the earth cannot be saved,it is my fault.”

Maskaleris concluded withKazantzakis’ famous epitaph:"Den Elpizo Tipota, DenFovoumai Tipota, Eimai Eleft-heros – I expect nothing, I fearnothing, I am free.

The program continued withHara Spiliou’s recitation ofMaskaleris’ moving poem “Arg-onauts,” which expresses thejourney of the Greek immigrantin America, and was followed bythe children of the dance troupesof the Cretans Association Omo-nia.

The evening concluded witha reception and an exhibition ofGreek books for sale organizedby Hellenic Book Club – Livanis-USA.

Prometheus is planning a se-ries of literary, philosophical andscholarly events. Triantafilou toldTNH that the group’s wider mis-sion, reflects his belief that “thecommunity’s educators must beembraced and supported,” andtheir issues addressed.

He is committed to having theAssociation take the lead in es-tablishing a pension fund for itsmembers.

(L-R) John Nathenas, George Melikokis, Thanasis Maskaleris, Demosthenes Triantafillou, andEleftheria Oikouta look on as Flora Kirou sings the Greek and American national anthems.

The Hellenic Cultural Center of the Archdiocese in Astoria was filled on March 2with devoteesof the great Cretan Nikos Kazantzakis. They heard a lecture by Thanasis Maskaleris.

n MARCH 7ASTORIA – CYPRECO Presents:“Lefkara Lace Embroidery” aFree Event for the Entire Familyon Friday, Mar. 7 at 8PM at theStathakion Cultural Center, 22-51 29th St. in Astoria.CYPRECO’s new folk arts pro-gram is dedicated to the LefkaraLace Embroidery, a centuries-oldtraditional craft representativeto the island of Cyprus and morespecifically to the small moun-tain village of Lefkara. Thisunique program will revive thelace making tradition in Lefkarathrough the screening of an orig-inal documentary which high-lights and examines the histori-cal development of this craft, theunique designs and techniques.Featuring also an exhibit ofLefkara embroideries. Admissionis free, however a reservation ifpreferred. To book your seatscall 718-545-1151 or [email protected]. Formore information visit cypre-coofamerica.com.

n MARCH 19MANHATTAN – The MarthaGraham Dance Company, aworld leader in the evolving artform of modern dance, willlaunch its New York season atNew York City Center with itsOpening Night Gala, Celebratingthe Graham/Greek Connection.The Company’s Opening NightGala is its largest and most im-portant annual benefit eventsupporting the artistic and pub-lic programs of the Martha Gra-ham Dance Company. It takesplace on Wednesday, Mar. 19 at7PM at the New York City Cen-ter, 131 West 55th Street (be-tween 6th and 7th Avenues) inManhattan. Dinner and dancingto follow at The Plaza Hotel,58th Street and Fifth Avenue inManhattan. The Gala eveningwill begin with a performanceby the Martha Graham DanceCompany at City Center and willbe followed by dinner and danc-ing with the artists at The PlazaHotel. The one-night-only galaperformance will feature thehighly anticipated world pre-miere of Echo, a new work bycontemporary choreographerAndonis Foniadakis, highlightsfrom a new one-act productionof celebrated Graham master-work Clytemnestra, and a veryspecial performance of Graham’sPanorama starring visiting stu-dents from the Greek NationalState School of Dance on stagewith members of Graham 2. Thiscollaboration will launch Gra-ham’s major new education part-nership in Greece. The 2014Gala honors leaders of Greekheritage from around the worldwho, like Martha Graham, leadand inspire through innovation,generosity, and a commitmentto empower the next generation,and who are making an impactthrough significant efforts to lifthumanity�whether through art,business, or philanthropy. TheCompany is incredibly privilegedto be honoring HRH CrownPrincess Katherine of Serbia forher global philanthropic work,noted educational philanthropistand pioneering female entrepre-neur Kitty P. Kyriacopoulos, andgiving tribute to the late IliasLalaounis, renowned designer offine jewelry. Gala tickets are$2,500, $1,500, $1,000 and$750. Gala tables of ten are$25,000, $15,000, $10,000 and$8,000. To purchase tickets, con-tact Martha Graham DanceCompany’s Development De-partment at 212-229-9200 ext.25, or online atmarthagraham.org. Perfor-mance-only tickets are availablethrough CityTix: 212-581-1212/ www.nycitycenter.org.

n MARCH 22-23TORONTO, CAN. – The GreekCommunity of Toronto is de-lighted to invite you to the GreekNational Independence DayGala, which will take place onSaturday, Mar. 22 beginning at6:30PM, at the Paramount Con-ference and Event Centre, 22Rowntree Dairy Road in Wood-bridge, Ontario. The Gala willfeature dinner, dancing, and en-tertainment. Tickets are $100 foradults, $75 for students, and$50 for children. On the follow-ing day, Sunday, Mar. 23, theGreek Community of Torontowill celebrate Greek Indepen-dence Day with a parade! It be-gins at 1PM at Danforth Avenue(Jones to Broadview), and Pa-rade participants will gather atthe Eastern High School, 16 PhinAve. (Danforth and Danlands).For questions and more infor-mation about either event, andif you are interested in partici-

pating in either, or both, pleasecall us at: (416) 425-2485 oremail us at: [email protected].

n MARCH 27MANHATTAN – The Associationof Greek American ProfessionalWomen (AGAPW) cordially in-vites you to our 2014 “GreekAmerican Woman of the Year”Award gala, in honor of Ambas-sador Eleni TsakopoulosKoulanakis. Thursday, Mar. 277-9PM at the Century Associa-tion, Penthouse Suite, 7 West43rd St. in Manhattan. Ambas-sador Loukas Tsilas and Mrs.Penelopy Tsilas will introduceAmbassador Kounalakis. An Ex-cellence Tuition Scholarship willbe presented in honor of Ambas-sador Kounalakis. There will bea presentation by Ms. EvgeniaSoldados, JD, on “The HistoricalContributions of Greek Ameri-can Women to our Country andCommunity,” and a live perfor-mance by renowned composerof world fusion music andsitarist Nana Simopoulos and so-prano Flora Kirou. Receptionwith wine and hors d’oeuvres.Requested minimum donation:$100. Preregistration is re-quired. For further informationand to RSVP, please visitwww.agapw.org or contact Dr.Olga Alexakos [email protected] or (917)405- 6833.

n MARCH 29UNIONDALE, NY – The NewYork Islanders and the GreekChildren’s Fund are teaming upfor our First Annual Greek Her-itage Night when the New YorkIslanders host the New JerseyDevils on Saturday, Mar. 29 at7PM at the Nassau Coliseum,1255 Hempstead Turnpike inUniondale. Members of theGreek Community will be ableto participate in special experi-ences throughout the game. Inaddition to your ticket to thegame, everyone who purchasesthrough this offer will get a spe-cial edition Greek puck! A por-tion of every ticket purchasedwill benefit the Greek Children’sFund. Tickets: $37, $55, $75.For more information, pleasecontact: Irene Drakopoulos(732)801-0414, Tina Anastos(845) 494-8974 or SamMatthews (201) 390-1007.

n APRIL 16TORONTO, CAN. – The GreekCommunity of Toronto (GCT) ishappy to announce the TorontoRaptors – GCT Member Privi-leges Program. Join us for theRaptors final home game againstthe New York Knicks to close outthe 2013-2014 NBA season, atspecial GCT rates! About theGCT Member Privileges Pro-gram: The GCT Member Privi-leges Program has been de-signed with our members inmind. This exclusive on-line dis-count program offers savingsand discounts from partners inthe Greater Toronto Area andfeatures savings for commonlyused products and services suchas major sporting events, travel,local attractions, computers andmore. Contact us before April 16in order to receive informationabout special rates to othergames, as well as other eventsthrough this special GCT mem-bership rewards program! Formore information or to join thisprogram please contact PeterThemos at [email protected] Dennis Kosmatosat [email protected] Price: $17.00 Non-Member Price: $26.00. Comejoin the Raptors-GCT collabora-tion, where Greeks and basket-ball fans become one!

n JUNE 27-29CINCINNATI, OH – Come joinus this year as we celebrate our40th annual Hellenic Festival!Where? St. Nicholas Greek Or-thodox Church, 7000 WinstonRoad, in Cincinnati. When? Sat-urday, Jun. 27 through Monday,Jun. 29. For more information,updated details, and a count-down calendar to the big date,please visit our website:http://www.holytrinity.oh.goarch.org/panegyri.

n NOTE TO OUR READERSThis calendar of events sectionis a complimentary service to theGreek American community. Allparishes, organizations and in-stitutions are encouraged to e-mail their information regardingthe event 3-4 weeks ahead oftime, and no later than Mondayof the week before the event, [email protected]

GOINGS ON...

QUESTION OF THE WEEKDo you think President Obama is forceful enough when

dealing with Russian leader Vladimir Putin?Please email your response to

[email protected] We may publish some responses as Letters to the Editor in

a future issue.

By FrancesThemeliopoulos

Each January, the GreekCommunity of Toronto holds aspecial event to coincide withthe feast of the Three Hierarchs.It is a celebration of Greek let-ters and is dedicated to thepreservation of the ideals of Or-thodox Christianity and Helleniceducation. In recent years, theevent has grown to include theformal Graduation Ceremonyfor the previous year’s Grade 12students. On January 30th, Pres-ident Andonis Artemakis, Vice-President/Treasurer NikonaGeorgakopoulos, and Vice-Pres-ident/General Secretary HermesIordanous, together with repre-sentatives from the EducationDepartment welcomed 350 stu-dents, parents, extended familymembers and educators to an-other successful event at thePolymenakion Cultural Centre.

Stacy Ganogiannis-Reid,Board Member and Chair of theDepartment of Education wasvery pleased by the turnout andwas eager to talk about thequalities embodied by many ofthe graduating “ambassadors”for the Greek Community ofToronto (GCT). When speakingwith students, Ganogiannis-Reidoften reminds them that theymust always demonstrate re-sponsible citizenship in everydomain of their lives, that theymust represent their communitywith pride, and that they mustremain involved at the GreekCommunity beyond their Greeklanguage schooling. One of herfavourite proverbs is, “it’s notthe sugar that makes the teasweet; it’s the stirring” – and shelooks forward to seeing the hardwork that students are demon-strating in this facet of their in-volvement at the Greek Com-

munity in future volunteerismthat will benefit future genera-tions of Toronto’s Greek-Cana-dian youth.

Nothing pleases her morethan hearing praise from variouscommunity members who arepleased to see older studentsmentoring younger students inGreek School, Greek Dancing,or Greek Theatre programs. Sheprovided several examples ofstudents who are active in vari-ous academic, sports, and otherco-curricular events at their full-time English schools and yetalso devoted to maintainingtheir participation in multipleGreek Community of Torontoprograms.

Honoured guests includedHis Grace Bishop Christoforos,who officiated in the Archiepis-copal Vespers, President of theCypriot Community of Toronto,Nick Hadjiyiannis, Consul of Ed-ucational Affairs at the Con-sulate General of Greece inToronto, Dr. Despina Hatzidi-akos, and Toronto District

School Board Trustee, SamSotiropoulos. Also present weremembers of the GeorgareasFamily, there to begin a new tra-dition.

Fouli (Garyfalia) Tsimikalis(nee Georgareas), along withher father Louis Georgareas pre-sented the very first Louis Geor-gareas Academic Award for Ex-cellence along with $2500.00 inscholarship money to Grade 12Graduate, ChristinaPetropoulou. Petropoulouachieved excellent results on her“Ellinometheia” Greek LanguageProficiency Exam in 2013, wasa student at GCT schools formore than 5 years, and has longbeen actively involved in GCTprograms. She is the first andsole 2014 recipient of this newaward.

Tsimikalis inherited her pas-sion for education from her fa-ther, who was instrumental inhelping to launch GCT GreekSchools in the 1960s and 1970s.Today, Fouli Tsimikalis and herhusband, Steve, own and oper-

ate their own private school, theToronto Prep School. She is Di-rector of Admissions and he isthe Principal. The Georgareasesin fact plan to donate two an-nual $2500.00 scholarships toGCT Greek School students whoexemplify academic excellence,civic responsibility, and commu-nity engagement within theGreek Community of Toronto.Looking forward, a standingcouncil of at least four membersincluding the Chair of the Edu-cation Department, the Man-ager of Education, a GreekSchool Parent Council represen-tative and a Greek School Prin-cipal representative will reviewwhich applicants meet theaward criteria.

The GCT currently providesGreek language programs forchildren in grades Kindergartenthrough to Grade 12. Beginner,Intermediate, and Advancedadult language classes are alsoavailable. Both Ganogiannis-Reid, an educator employed atthe Toronto District SchoolBoard (the 4th largest schoolboard in North America) andMr. Flegas, an educator on sec-ondment to the GCT EducationDepartment see much potentialfor growing the Greek Educa-tion programs provided by theGCT. Flegas has previously livedin Greece for several years, com-pleted his schooling there andsince returning to his hometownof Toronto, has been formallyaccredited with the Ontario Col-lege of Teachers. At present theyare working to develop a com-mon curriculum for Greek as aforeign language, which is cur-rently unavailable via Greece’sMinistry of Education.

For more information aboutthe Greek Community ofToronto, please visitwww.greekcommunity.org

Toronto Greeks Celebrate Feast of Three Hierarchs

Left to Right: Mr. Louis Georgareas, 2014 Award WinnerChristina Petropoulou, Fouli Tsimikalis, Stacy Ganogiannis-Reid.

GREEKS AROUND CANADA

Prometheus Celebrates Legacy of Kazantzakis

PHOTOS: TNH/COSTAS BEJ

www.thenationalherald.com

By Theodore Kalmoukos

BOSTON, MA – Greece’s Na-tional Defense Minister DimitrisAvramopoulos in an exclusiveinterview with TNH about theUkraine crisis said that “theglobal stability is at risk” andcalled Ukraine a powder kegready to explode.

Avramopoulos visited Bostonfor a Harvard University confer-ence arranged by the Europeanclubs of Harvard and Tuft’sFletcher School of Law andDiplomacy, following a trip toBrussels where he attended ameeting of the European Minis-ters of Defense and follow-upmeetings regarding Ukraine-Russia standoff.

Having assumed the EU pres-idency just over a month ago,Greece now has to deal withthat extremely serious and dan-gerous issue, which can lead towar between Russia and theUkraine.

Avramopoulos said that “dur-ing these critical hours there isno doubt that diplomacy shouldprevail in order to arrive at a

political solution, because it isnot only a peripheral crisis, itcan endanger the global stabil-ity.” He emphasized that “we

have two enemies in front of usextremism and imperiousness.Extremism as a political practicereminds of the most dark peri-

ods of human history and theimperiousness as an interna-tional behavior can blow every-thing up off all the civilizedworld has accomplished afterthe post war period.”

Avramopoulos also statedthat the post-war period provedthat the relations between theWestern world and Russia didnot come about by the effortsof one side only, but a collabo-rative effort toward stability. “Atthe same time, together, wedealt with terrorism and funda-mentalism. Together, we createdthe common world architectureand now it is time to reassureour loyalty to the mutual under-standing and collusion to basicvalues.

“The mutual understandingis the soul of international law.You cannot have a stabilizedworld that doesn’t respect inter-national law, and these thingsare in danger as we speak in theUkraine.”

He said that “political pru-dence should prevail. The worstthing we can do is to go back tothe animosities of the past. We

should look towards the futurewith decisiveness and responsi-ble leadership.”

What about the future? “Itdemands that we cooperatewith the Ukraine and Russia andwith all officials of the interna-tional law order for a stabilizedand peaceful world. We shouldhave a democratic and undi-vided Ukraine that essentiallywill unite the Euro- Atlantic Re-gion with Russia.”

Speaking about Greece’s in-volvement as presiding countryin Europe, Avramopoulos saidthat “a few days ago all the Min-isters of Defense met in Athensand although the issue was notincluded in the official agenda,we discussed it extensively andwe sent a message to Russia andto Ukraine. Also, the Ministersof Foreign Affairs met in Europeand sent their own message. “Iam going back to Brussels,” headded, “where we are going tohave another meeting.”

Avramopoulos said that“Greece takes strong initiatives.The Vice President of the Greekgovernment and Minister of For-

eign Affairs Evangelos Venizeloshas gone to the Ukraine for dis-cussions. We are acting dynam-ically in the settings of Europeand NATO. We remind all thatin the crossbow of insecurityand instability, which starts fromUkraine and ends in Tunis,Greece is a strong stabilizingfactor and always ready to re-spond to any mission that is as-signed to her, aiming for the cre-ation of an environment ofcertainty, stability, and peace inthe region.”

Avramopoulos described theUkraine crisis as “taking a dan-gerous turn as we speak. A fewdays ago the Ministers of For-eign Affairs of France, Germany,and Poland visited the Ukraineseeking even a temporary solu-tion, but they were not success-ful. A war conflict should beavoided at any cost because itcan blow up the entire regionnot only in the Southeastern Eu-rope but Caucasus and even theentire world. It is powder kegready to explode and the re-sponsibilities of all the leadersare huge.”

COMMUNITYTHE NATIONAL HERALD, MARCH 8-14, 2014 3

Greek Defense Min. Avramopoulos Talks to TNH about Ukraine Crisis

Greece’s Minister of National Defense Dimitris Avramopoulosspoke to The National Herald about the Ukraine crisis.

By Anthe Mitrakos

CHICAGO – It’s official. Bank ofNew York Mellon Wealth Man-agement Senior Director AlexiGiannoulias has wed. Sorryladies, but the 37 year-old for-mer State Treasurer has takenthe elegant 27 year-old Italian-American Josephine “Jo” Terlatoas his bride.

The couple, which had beendating for well over a year, tiedthe knot in the Windy City overValentine’s Day Weekend, onFebruary 15th. A snow-coveredday welcomed the newlyweds,who married at the beautifully-decorated St. Andrews GreekOrthodox Church on Chicago’sNorth Side. About 300 guestsattended the ceremony.

Daughter of Bill Terlato,President and CEO of TerlatoWine Group, the bride wore abeautiful fitted shiny silk dresscovered by a long embroideredtulle veil. Three groomsmen andthree bridesmaids wearing seri-ous long dark grey dresses hon-ored the couple, while Giannou-lias’ two brothers, Demetri and

George, served as best men. Fr. John Kalomas, who per-

formed the sacrament, enter-tained guests with his usual sto-ries and jokes, and after theceremony the celebrationquickly moved to the dazzlingRitz Carlton Ball Room.

A plush and exquisite setupuniquely greeted guests while alarge stage of about a dozenmusicians played live music, asthe guests enjoyed a spectaculararray of food and dessert. Itcomes as no surprise that a var-ied selection of wines includingchampagne, garnished the ta-bles, as the Terlatos have a longbusiness history in spirits distri-bution.

The father of the bride, bestmen, and brother of the bridegave several speeches bearingwishes to the newlyweds. Gian-noulias then spoke about his re-lationship with Josephine, alsoreferred to as “Jo-Jo,” and paidtribute to his late father, whohad suddenly passed away thesummer before his victory as Illi-nois State Treasurer in 2006.

Esteemed guests for the

night included Governor PatrickQuinn, former U.S. Ambassadorto Hungary Eleni TsakopoulosKounalakis, Illinois State Comp-troller and former Illinois StateTreasurer Judy Barr Topinka,the Honorable Judges AnnaDemacopoulos and Peggy Chi-ampas, and Chris Tomaras ofthe PanHellenic ScholarshipFoundation.

“This was the most beautiful,most graceful, most entertain-ing, and most expensive wed-ding I have ever attended,” saidTomaras, who estimated the cel-ebration’s cost at roughly aquarter million dollars. “It wasall done for the most worthy,the most gracious, and the mostlovable couple that I have comeacross in recent years, and I amvery happy to know them. Thiswas indeed ‘the wedding of theyear,’” he added.

The couple had registered atBloomingdale’s and requestedthat in lieu of wedding gifts, do-nations be made to two non-Greek charities: One Million De-grees, a community collegestudent mentoring organization,

and Chicago Children’s Advo-cacy Center, a support agencyfor abused and neglected chil-dren.

A Chicago native and Demo-cratic candidate, Giannoulias in2006 became Illinois’ youngesttreasurer at age 30. He later lostthe race for Barack Obama’s va-cated senate seat in 2010, byless than two percentage pointsto Republican Mark Kirk.

Giannoulias graduated witha degree in economics fromBoston University, and pursueda one-year stint as a basketballplayer for the Greek team Pan-ionios B.C. in 1998. He later re-turned to the States to study lawat Tulane University LawSchool. After graduation, Gian-noulias joined his family-runbusiness Broadway Bank until itclosed in 2010, as did a stringof other Chicago banks bur-dened with bad loans.

After losing the Senate raceto Kirk, Giannoulias taught a po-litical science course at North-western University. He currentlyserves as Senior Director of BNYMellon Wealth Management

and as Chairman of the Boardat the Illinois Community Col-lege System.

Terlato since July serves asthe Illinois region premier divi-sion sales manager at TerlatoWine Group, part of her family’sfour-generation wine and spiritscompany, Lake Bluff, IL-basedTerlato Wines International. Awine importer that marketsmore than 10 percent of winesover $14 sold in the UnitedStates, Terlato Wines Interna-

tional accounts for 41 percentof all advertising dollars spentamong luxury wine brands, ac-cording to the company’s web-site.

Terlato taught fourth gradeat Gary Lighthouse CharterSchool in Gary, IN as part of theTeach for America program aftergraduating from Duke Univer-sity. Prior to joining her fatherat the family business, she spentthree years at Southern Wineand Spirits Illinois.

Illinois Banker Alexi Giannoulias Ties the Knot

Alexi Giannoulias and Josephine Terlato together at the openingof the Michael and Mary Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, andByzantine Art at the Art Institute of Chicago, November 2012.

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NEW YORK – Violinist LeonidasKavakos and pianist Enrico Paceperformed at Zankel Hall, oneof Carnegie Hall’s performancespaces on March 2.

Kavakos is on a world tourwith Pace performing all ten ofLudwig Van Beethoven’s sonatasfor violin and piano, which theyalso recorded last year for theDecca label.

The concert was sold out –ushers and captains were nothappy when patrons asked themto switch their seats to thosefrightened away by the threatof a blizzard. They wanted toget a better view of the Greekviolinist whose performanceswith the “Abergavenny” Stradi-varius of 1724 always beginwith stoic calm and concentra-tion and then yield to his Hel-lenic passion that powers ex-pressive movements of his armsand his tall, lean frame.

They arrived in New York af-ter a series of successful concertsduring the month of Februaryin Boston, Philadelphia, Prince-ton and Toronto, and on whatwas supposed to be a stormynight Kavakos strode onto thestage clad in black and donningblack glasses, his dark hair rest-ing – to begin with – on hisshoulders.

The first movement of sonataNo. 6 in A Major, Op. 30 No. 1was marked allegro, instructingthe musicians to play “fast,quickly, and bright.”

Adagio molto expressivo,“slow and stately,” “very expres-sively” announced the secondmovement. The tender pas-sages, some of which stoppedto dead silence, were beautifullyexecuted, but they served ashints at what the audiencewould experience later in theprogram.

The final movement “Ale-gretto con variazione,” with itsdelightful double stops – playingwith the bow across two strings–alternated playful and sensu-ous moments, some soft, somemore intense, evoking senses of

mature lovemaking and the de-lights of youth.

The second piece, Sonata No.3 in E-flat Major, op. 12 No. 3,breathed both Germanic andItalian moments, miraculouslyjuxtaposed and blended byBeethoven’s genius, and mov-ingly expressed by the perform-ers and Kavakos seemed to be-gin to enjoy himself as the piecebecame more agitated.

After the intermission cameSonata No. 2 in A Major, Op.12, No. 2, but all that precededwas preparation for Sonata No.7 in C Minor, Op. 30. No. 2 withits dramatic opening marked Al-legro con brio, Allegro “withvigor and spirit.”

The C Minor piece remindedthat Beethoven’s pieces seem tobe musical icons of his great re-lationships – romantic, politicaland familial. The instruments ofhis interpreters sing his stormyand brilliant life, sometimes il-

luminated with Mediterraneansunshine and at other times setin overcast North Europeanskies.

Beethoven often evokes moreplayful moments in German lifewhich parallel breezy Italianatepassages, but the final piecespotlights the serious side of theTeutonic soul, the cerebral andthe sturm und drang – stormand stress.

Quiet, subtle passages, skill-fully executed by Kavakos, weresuddenly accented by passion-ate outbursts.

After some furious segmentsfor piano and violin in the finalmovements, Kavakos poured allhis mastery into the delicatepassage with its painfully slowbow movements.

The audience literally heldits breath.

A dramatic ending promptedloud applause and a standingovation from an appreciative au-

dience, which included Arch-bishop Demetrios and BishopSevastianos of Zela. It appearedthat there were few other Hel-lenes, but there seemed to bemany Russians and Ukrainiansanxious to get their minds offthe danger in their homelands.KAVAKOS SPEAKS WITH TNH

Kavakos must have beenpleased because he told TNH“New York audiences love musicvery much,” and they are verycareful and critical listeners.

His thoughts are never farfrom his homeland and itsyoung artists, however.

“In countries that are suffer-ing, the first cuts always comein culture and education. It’svery sad, because without thesetwo pillars of society, huge dan-gers are born… the political ex-tremism and barbarism we seein countries all around us.”

He bemoans the climate ofspecial interests and corruptionthat have brought “great pain,

sadness and problems” to hiscountry, but adds, “We are nowin a period where we are chal-lenge to change our mind-sets.We must move forward basedon other models and pursueother dreams through differentbehaviors. We must be betterconnected with reality and tomove forward with small andsteady steps. “

Kavakos concluded, withsome hope, that “we are in theperiod of the Crucifixion beforethe resurrection.”

Like many outstanding clas-sical musicians, Kavakos’ andPace’s careers where launchedby triumphs at internationalcompetitions. Pace was 22 whenhe won the Franz Liszt PianoCompetition in 1989 andKavako’s renown began whenhe won the Sibelius Competitionin when he was still a teenager.Both have since developed rela-tionship with the world’s majororchestras and conductors.

Kavakos’ violin studies beganat five years old and he followedhis father into the Conservatory.An Onassis Foundation scholar-ship funded his attendance atmaster classes at Indiana Uni-versity.

He also told TNH about theMusical Horizons master classesand workshops in Athens inwhich he participates. “I verymuch like to share my experi-ence and ideas with the youngergenerations. It is an obligationto teach and inspire young mu-sicians. That is why I participatein the workshop every year.”

Kavakos said the foundationof his musical appreciation andpassion lies in Greece’s folk mu-sic, which he heard from hisgrandfather. “I love it. Its extra-ordinary and its sources willnever be exhausted.”

He was referring not only into the music of his region ofEpirus, which he adores, butmusic from all over Greece.“There is a very rich traditionthat that reflects nature, theethos and customs of every pe-riod,” whose spirit he loves toconvey to audiences all over theworld.

Kavakos and Pace Wow Carnegie Hall with Beethoven Sonata Repertoire

Zankel Hall at Carnegie was sold out for Leonidas Kavakosand Enrico Pace, who performed Beethoven’s sonatas for violinand piano, pieces from the composer’s middle period. RIGHT: A close up of violinist Leonidas Kavakos reveals hispassion, intensity and control – but there are moments of play-fulness perhaps rooted in his love of Greek folk music.

tural Center in Athens.The moderator, Ben Green-

man, a contributing writer atthe New Yorker and the authorof several acclaimed works offiction, introduced Eugenides,who is a fellow of the AmericanAcademy of Arts and Sciencesand teaches creative writing atPrinceton University in New Jer-sey, where he lives with his wifeand child.

Eugenides also enjoyed thesymposium setting. “It’s great tobe back in Brooklyn, where Iused to live, eating, drinkingand…being literary. I drink a lotbut I’m often not literary,’” hesaid to lusty laugher across thecrowded room.

Eugenides presented an ex-cerpt from “Find the Bad Guy”which is part of his upcomingcollection of short stories. Hesaid “I’m just going to read atthe beginning and leave you alltruly unsatisfied,” a Platonictease apropos of the symposiumsetting.

In other words he hoped toleave them desiring more sothey would buy his book, whichis a simple trick for the winnerof the Pulitzer Prize for his novelMiddlesex.

The Detroit-born and raisedauthor delighted with the Texas-drawl and German accents headopted for his two characters,Charlie Daniels – not the musi-cian – and Johanna, who mar-ried him for a green card.

Eugenides learned the Ger-man intonation during his fiveyears of living in Berlin, but itwas not clear how he picked upred-neck, other than the fact ofhis remarkable ear for the waypeople talk.

The program limited him to15 minutes but the guests didnot want him to stop plyingthem with reasons to laugh andthey were left wondering if allauthors were actors at heart.

Charlie is undergoing a pe-riod of self-examination – inten-sified by sessions with marriagecounsellors and steam baths -after his ex-wife got a judge toslap him with a temporary re-straining order that made himunable to see his daughter.

Eugenides said the way thestory is supposed to work is that“it seems at first a very broadcomedy but it becomes muchmore serious.” Charlie, whospeaks with a Texas accent butis really from Michigan, decidedhe “had to talk the talk” in orderto be a country music radio sta-tion consultant.

“He seems quite sincere intrying to figure himself out…and he actually tries to connectwith his wife through the coun-selling.”

Charlie wants to “move be-yond the errors of his past,” Eu-

genides said, and he confessesabout taking out his marriageanger on the family dog.

He feels terrible about beat-ing the dog but the story movesbeyond that incident to some-thing deep in human nature.“We all have those moments,”uncharacteristic acts of violence,or mendacity. “They shock us,but they happen,” he said, andthe challenge is “What do youdo with that [knowledge]?”

During the Q&A Eugenidessaid his path to being a writerwas a fairly uninterrupted jour-ney. A trip he took to India inhis 20s shook him up, though.

He was exposed to tubercu-losis and had to take pills andsee a doctor regularly for sixmonths. “I realized for the firsttime what a precarious careerin writing is – You can call it acareer but you can’t. I thought

‘what am I going to do? I needsomething to fall back on.’”

He reasoned, “I really like mydoctor. Why don’t I go to med-ical school,” but when he toldhis mother she burst out laugh-ing.

“I thought it was a very badsign because she always sup-ported all my ambitions,” hesaid.

Greenman – whose motherdid the same thing – said thatthere are connections: “A writeris a good diagnostician,” of thehuman condition.

When Greenman asked what

other paths Eugenides mighthave taken, some in the audi-ence laughed when he said “Iwould like to be Cole Porter,”but others were intrigued aboutthat given the musicality of Eu-genides’ prose – which he justvividly illustrated with his read-ing.

He shared a bit of what hap-pens to a writer who achievesfame. First of all, it ruins thatonce beautiful experience of go-ing to a bookstore. “You walk inand you say ‘where’s my book?’”

Eugenides confided in his

guests about the difficulties ofhis craft. “It’s hard to write anovel.” But he concluded witha piece of general advice he justreceived about self-doubt.“When you have all those fearsat two in the morning… Theyseem like the truth… but yourbrain is just in a state when it’snot thinking clearly.” He saidthose ideas are “are absolutely,completely full of crapola,” de-lighting his guests with apseudo-hard science ending toa delicious soft humanitiesevening.

Eugenides Talks Literature as Wine, Food and Music Flow in BrooklynContinued from page 1

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The 50 WealthiestGreeks in America

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Jeffrey Eugenides was featured at the inaugural event of theHellenic Humanities Programs at the Brooklyn Academy ofMusic co-presented by BAM and the Onassis Cultural CenterNY. LEFT: The “Eat Drink & Be Literary” series is held at theBAMCafe above the lobby of the Brooklyn Academy of Music.A buffet, fine wine, and Jazz preceded Jeffrey Eugenides’ talk.

Inaugural Greektini Networking Reception Hosted by HPW Hellenic Professional Women (HPW) recently hosted first Greektini, an after-work happy hourwhere Greek-American professional women can meet and network in a relaxed atmosphere.Seen at the Opia Restaurant Bar-Lounge in Manhattan are: (L-R) Valia Glytsis, newly-electedpresident, Maria Frantzis, founding president, Ronnie Kratios, Constantina Papageorgiou andToula Bogdanos. HPW is dedicated to inspiring and supporting professional opportunities forGreek-American women.

By Evan C. LambrouSpecial to The National Herald

NEW YORK – The AmericanHellenic Institute (AHI) is hold-ing its 39th anniversary gala inWashington, DC on March 8,and is showcasing, among oth-ers, International OrthodoxChristian Charities (IOCC) forits ongoing philanthropic activ-ities worldwide, particularly onbehalf of people struggling witheconomic hardship in Greece.

AHI President & ExecutiveDirector Nick Larigakis toldTNH ahead of the highly- antic-ipated event that recognizingIOCC is well deserved and longoverdue.

“AHI has tried to develop atradition of honoring not just in-dividuals, but also our commu-nity’s great organizations, forthe good things they do. Overthe years, we have honored or-ganizations like AHEPA, the Or-der of Saint Andrew (Archonsof the Ecumenical Patriarchate)and Philoptochos. And this year,we thought it would be appro-priate to honor IOCC for its ex-traordinary work,” Larigakissaid.

“We’re very happy to helpshowcase the magnificent workIOCC has managed to accom-plish in such a relatively shortperiod of time. They’ve beenaround less than 25 years, andthey’ve already delivered wellover $400 million in aid to peo-ple in more than 50 countries,”he said.

“That says it all right there,”he said, adding that recognizingan organization’s civic and phil-anthropic action also helps

make a positive impact on over-all public policy.

As it pertains to Greece andthe Greek American community,Larigakis explained, IOCC’s phil-anthropic assistance to helpGreek farmers recover from thewildfire disaster of 2007 and itscurrent efforts to help feed thehungry in Greece are particu-larly noteworthy, “and here atAHI, we believe more people inour community, as well as Amer-icans across the country, needto become more aware of what

IOCC has done and continuesto do so effectively. We want tohelp bring that to the forefrontat this year’s dinner becauseIOCC reaches out to help allevi-ate human suffering all over theworld. And the wider public, notjust Greek Americans, shouldknow more about all the won-derful work that IOCC does.”

AHI’s annual Hellenic Her-itage Achievement & NationalPublic Service Awards Dinner,widely considered one of theGreek-American community’spremier annual events, is a verygood time and place to shedmore light on IOCC, he said, un-derscoring that AHI is also veryproud this year to honor AtlantaBread CEO Jerry Couvaras; Tim-othy J. Maniatis, a well-knownmember of the ArchbishopIakovos Leadership 100 Endow-ment Fund and the NationalHellenic Society; L100 Execu-tive Director Paulette Poulos;and Congresswoman Dina Titus(D-NV).

AHI itself does not have aphilanthropic component. Itsmission is to advocate for publicpolicy affecting Hellenic issues(e.g., the Turkish occupation ofNorthern Cyprus), and to ex-plain how and why U.S. foreignpolicy on those issues needs tobe more consistent with Ameri-can principles, values, andideals.

And by honoring OrthodoxChristian organizations likeIOCC – a Pan-Orthodox agencyfounded in early 1992 by retiredGreek-American industrialistJohn G. Rangos Sr., himself aleading philanthropist who washonored by AHI in 2009 – AHIremains consistent with its ef-forts to intersect with all aspectsof Greek- American society.

“Even though AHI’s main ob-jective is to advocate for publicpolicy issues, we don’t restrictourselves to recognizing onlymembers of Congress or peoplewho advocate for public policyissues. We also honor business-men, members of the arts andentertainment community, phil-anthropists and, obviously, or-ganizations that promote noblecauses,” Larigakis said, citingAHEPA’s National Housing Cor-poration, which helps supportsenior citizens nationwide.

“I often point to AHEPA’shousing program as a good ex-ample. AHEPA helps manageHUD-sponsored housing all overthe country. That identifies theGreek American communityand, by extension its organiza-tions, not simply as a group thattries to help ‘its own,’ so tospeak, but also as Americanswho advocate for equitable po-lices for everyone; as a groupthat reaches out to help all peo-ple in need. In that sense,IOCC’s philanthropic work,which is not limited to Greek orOrthodox Christian causes perse, helps people we engage un-derstand that we don’t worksimply for or within the context

of our own community,” he said.IOCC VERY MOVED

IOCC Executive DirectorConstantine Triantafilou toldTNH that he was “very pleas-antly surprised and humbled”when AHI contacted IOCC, not-ing that IOCC was “very moved”to learn that AHI had been pay-ing attention to IOCC’s philan-thropic efforts for quite sometime.

“The fact that AHI was look-ing at not just the current workwe’re doing in Greece, but alsoat the work we did to helpGreece dating back to the 2007wildfire disaster, is very hum-bling. The fact that they havebeen paying attention to us isvery moving to me personally,and also to members of myboard. It reaffirms that the workwe’re doing really matters. Wedon’t necessarily need to be re-assured about our mission andhow important it is, but it’s al-ways nice to know others rec-ognize and appreciate our ef-forts,” Triantafilou said, addingthat it also helps reinvigoratethe morale of IOCC staffers onthe ground in various parts ofthe world.

“Our people in Greece, whoare doing all the heavy liftingover there, felt very upliftedwhen we told them one of thefinest Greek American organi-zations wants to acknowledgeIOCC’s efforts not just in Greece,but everywhere else we try tohelp people. Staff in Greece nat-urally felt particularly gratefulfor AHI’s recognition,” he said.

For his part, Rangos said heis very pleased that IOCC hasmade so much progress, andthat the agency is getting therecognition it deserves: “IOCCis an Orthodox Christian jewel.It is the Orthodox Church in ac-tion, and the Church in Amer-ica’s gift to the entire world. It’sonly fitting for AHI, one of ourcommunity’s leading activist or-ganizations, to openly recognizeIOCC, our community’s leadingphilanthropic agency, for all itstremendously effective charita-ble efforts worldwide,” he said.

WILDFIRE RELIEFWhen the massive wildfire

disaster struck Greece in Augustand September of 2007, itended up burning more than600 thousand acres, an area thesize of Rhode Island. Tri-antafilou went to Greece for afirsthand look at the destruc-tion. After getting over the ini-

tial shock – “To stand on themountainside and see nothingbut scorched earth for as far asyour eyes could see was justmind-boggling,” he told the Her-ald at the time – he met withIOCC staffers in Greece to helpidentify a particular set of prob-lems: fire extinguishing capabil-ities, soil quality and lack offood for farm animals.

IOCC helped set up a numberof large water tanks throughoutGreece so that Greek firefighterscould have adequate supplies ofwater handy to combat futurefires, as well as a soil lab to con-duct tests on soil for future agri-cultural use because rapidlyspreading flames had scorchedvast tracts of Greece’s arableland.

IOCC also determined thatmany Greek farmers, who hadlost tens of thousands of animalsto the wildfires, were desperateto feed their surviving livestock,but couldn’t because the flameshad consumed too much graz-ing land. Working with both theGreek Government and theChurch of Greece, IOCC put to-gether an effort that sent hun-dreds and hundreds of metrictons of animal feed over a sus-tained period of time, helpinghundreds of farmers feed thou-sands of animals.

The Rangos Family Founda-tion helped that program getstarted by donating $200 thou-

sand to help IOCC procure anddistribute 250 tons of animalfeed, and the Greek OrthodoxArchdiocese of America alsoraised millions of dollars forGreek fire relief, distributingmost of it to IOCC for the effort.

CURRENT GREEK CRISISAs to the current economic

crisis in Greece, which hasforced a large number of peopleinto poverty, IOCC – in tandemwith APOSTOLI, the philan-thropic arm of the Church ofGreece – has ramped up effortsto feed the hungry, providingfunding for food cards peoplecan use to buy fresh produce inGreek supermarkets which re-ceive produce from Greek farm-ers.

At Rangos’ urging, IOCCstarted studying the growingneed to help feed people inGreece more than two yearsago. After receiving anothermatching grant from the RangosFoundation, IOCC reached out

to AHEPA and James Thomas ofChicago and worked with LeonSpanos of St. Louis to developthe fresh food program cur-rently underway in Athens. Anavalanche of grants soon fol-lowed:

AHEPA gave $100 thousand.The Archdiocese gave $150thousand; The Hellenic Initia-tive gave $300 thousand; andthe Jaharis Family Foundationpledged a $2 million challengegrant to help expand the pro-gram, and has already deliveredthe first $1 million.

Those grants have allowedIOCC to help APOSTOLI feedthousands of people a month.IOCC anticipates that 1.7 mil-lion people will benefit from ac-cess to fresh food, supplementalfood assistance and medical aidover the next two years, and isaiming to ultimately delivermore than $8 million in aid withcontinued Greek American sup-port.

“This is all about local pro-curement, buying almost 100percent Greek commoditiesfrom Greek producers in Greece.It’s about feeding Greek familiesin need and helping the Greekeconomy at the same time.We’re teaming up with APOS-TOLI, which is operating a foodbank to help feed the hungry.IOCC is making it happen by co-ordinating the effort. We’rethere to help provide human re-

sources in terms of manpowerand offer financial assistance totheir program. APOSTOLI takesall donated bags of food to theirfood bank, sorts them out anddistributes food to people inneed. We provide funds for thefood cards which people can useto buy fresh produce at their lo-cal supermarkets, and we helpAPOSTOLI register people whoneed assistance,” Triantafilousaid.

Rangos pointed out thatwhile the program has gottenoff to a very good start, it willneed continued financial sup-port. “All the recent grants toIOCC’s food program in Greececlearly indicate that the GreekAmerican community has con-fidence in IOCC’s ability to de-liver much-needed aid. And Ihope all the wonderful supportcontinues to flow because it’sgoing to take a long time forGreece to recover from this hor-rendous situation,” he said.


AHI’s Larigakis Says IOCC Recognition is Well Deserved, Long Overdue

Bales of tryfilli (a type of clover) and 40-kilogram bags of corn/tryfilli pellets distributed by IOCCthrough a local animal feed distribution center in the fire-stricken province of Ileia back in 2007.

IOCC’s new fresh food initiative gives Greece’s most vulnerablefamilies a chance to purchase fresh fruits, vegetables and milkat local supermarkets with a food card.

the ruble.”Stavridis referred to his re-

cent article in Foreign Policy,“NATO Needs to Move Now onCrimea,” in which he analyzedthat now that the Olympics areover, Russian President VladimirPutin’s objective is to retain in-fluence, if not full control of theUkraine.

“Like a chess player leaningforward,” Stavridis wrote ofPutin, “his moves are sweepingthe board.”

The admiral described the“strategic importance to Russiaof the Black Sea port and thepresence of a significant part ofRussia's fleet and its guaranteedaccess to the Mediterranean andthe Levant.”

The hope, Stavridis says, isthat cooler heads will prevail,but “hope is not a strategy, andtherefore further action shouldbe considered. Planning is vitalto laying out options to deci-sion-makers, and NATO's mili-tary planners” will stay verybusy accordingly.

The United States must workwith NATO, Stavridis says, toweigh all of its options.

“In the military sphere, theseinclude ordering the SupremeHeadquarters, Allied Powers Eu-rope (SHAPE), led by U.S. Gen.Phil Breedlove, to conduct pru-dent planning and present op-tions in response to the situation.”

Stavridis realizes that therewill be substantial backlash toany NATO involvement, but

“the stakes are high and theRussians are moving,” he wrote.“Sitting idle, without at leastlooking at options, is a mistakefor NATO and would itself con-stitute a signal to Putin – onethat he would welcome.”

He referenced to TNH tenspecific recommendations hemade in his Foreign Policy arti-cle: 1) Increasing all intelli-gence-gathering functionsthrough satellites, Predator un-manned vehicles, and especiallycyber; 2) using the NATO-Ukrainian Commission and ex-isting military partnerships withthe Ukrainian military to shareinformation, intelligence, andsituational awareness with au-thorities in Kiev; 3) providingadvice to Ukrainian armedforces to prepare and positionthemselves in the event of fur-

ther conflict; 4) developingNATO contingency plans to re-act to full-scale invasion ofUkraine and to a partial inva-sion likely of Crimea. NATO con-tingency planning can be cum-bersome, but in Libya it movedquickly; 5) assigning one of theNATO Joint Force Commands(either Naples, Italy, or Brun-ssum, Netherlands) into directoverwatch of the situation; 6)standing up NATO crisis centersto full manning, especially atSHAPE and the relevant JointForce Command; 7) ensuringthat the Land and MaritimeComponent Commands (Izmir,Turkey, and Northwood in theUnited Kingdom, respectively)are conducting prudent plan-ning in their areas of expertiseand feeding their analysis to theJoint Force Command; 8) bring-ing the NATO Response Force,a 25,000-man sea, air, land, andspecial forces capability, to ahigher state of alert; 9) conven-ing allies with cyber-capabilities(this is not a NATO specialty) toconsider options – at a mini-mum to defend Ukraine if it isattacked in this domain (asGeorgia was); and 10) sailingNATO maritime forces into theBlack Sea and setting up con-tingency plans for their use.

Admiral James StavridisDiscusses Crisis in UkraineContinued from page 1

Admiral James Stavridis with the head of Russia’s Chief ofStaff General Nikolai Makarov meeting at Russia’s DefenseMinistry in Moscow in October, 2011.

www.GreekKitchennyc.com

Greek Orthodox Cathedral of St. Paul

110 Cathedral Ave., Hempstead, NY 11550 • Τel.: (516) 483-5700

The 54th Anniversaryof the Enshrined Tearing Icon

of the Virgin Mary

Saturday, March 15, 2014Eve of the Anniversary Paraklesis 7:00 p.m.

Sunday, March 16, 2014Divine Liturgy 9:15 a.m.

Refreshments will be served by the Ladies of our Philoptochos

following Saturdays’s and Sunday’s services

By Demetri TsakasTNH Staff Writer

NEW YORK – Although noteveryone looks forward to theonset of lent, many Hellenesand Philhellenes alike in theNew York Metropolitan Areaconsider the annual KatharaDeftera – Clean Monday dinnerfor the benefit of The GennadiusLibrary of the American Schoolsof Classical Studies at Athens(ASCSA) a can’t-miss event.

Each year the guests enjoy

old favorites and new discover-ies, fruits of the land and seathat Orthodox Christians areable to partake of during lent,which begins that day.

George Iliopoulos, the Con-sul General of Greece, offeredgreetings on behalf of the con-sulate and Greece’s Ambassadorto the U.S., Christos Panagopou-los, who was unable to attend.

Dr. Maria Georgopoulou, theLibrary’s director, thanked theguests and promised to visitthem all at their tables after her

brief overview of the Libraryand its current endeavors.

First, the Library’s mission isto preserve it treasure trove of100,000 items, especially itsrare books and documents; sec-ond, to create knowledgethrough projects related to itscollection, and finally, to dissem-inate that knowledge.

She noted the Library’s 15-lecture series that is streamedlive and is archived on its web-site, and she is especially proudof the fact that “our programs

bring students to Greece – ofGreek background or not – andwe make them ambassadors ofour culture.”

Their current major projectis the renovation of the library’swest wing and the creation of anew exhibition space, for whichthey received a $3 million EUgrant that will cover half thecost.

“Events like this make a hugedifference," she said.

Great Institutions find waysto grow in all times and circum-stances, and Georgopoulou toldTNH “We have a wise Board ofTrustees who help us a lot, butwe need all the help we canget.”

The Library has a remarkablenetwork of Philhellene friends,but Georgopoulou look forwardto more support from the Hel-lenic Diaspora.

One of the guests, scientistand industrialist Sotirios J. Va-haviolos, who attended with hiswife Aspasia, told TNH “for us,the library is very important,”not only because of its of sup-port of Hellenic culture but be-cause of ASCSA’s ties to Prince-ton, where they live. “TheGennadius is a priceless trea-sure,” he said.

The guests, who also enjoyedthe music of Grigoris Maninakisand his trio, were welcomed tothe Kellari Seafood Taverna byNassos Michas, the vice chair-man of the Libraries Board ofoverseers, who also thanked thebenefactors and organizers ofthe event.

The Gennadius Library “ishoused in a stately marblebuilding on the slopes of MountLycabettus. It was named Gen-nadeion in pious memory of thefounder’s father, George Genna-dius,” according to its website.

Clean Monday Dinner for the Gennadius Library


By Demetri TsakasTNH Staff Writer

FLUSHING – The children of thedance troupe, their parents,grandparents, and great grand-parents, on the evening of March1 clasped hands and perfectedthe celebration of the 108th an-niversary of the Pan-LemnianPhilanthropic Association “Hep-haestus” at Terrace on the Parkon March 1. The gathering was atribute to the founders and thosewho followed them in the serviceof the Society and its woman’sauxiliary “Maroula.”

The night before the affair,TNH Publisher Antonis H. Dia-mataris, a Lemnian, hosted a re-ception at the newspaper’s head-quarters in honor of theAssociation’s honorees over thepast 10 years.

At the dinner dance, the As-sociation presented Fr. JohnAntonopoulos, a Lemnianthrough marriage, and theAchievement Award for his manyyears of service as the dean ofCathedral of St. Demetrios,where he married and baptizedmany of those present.

Hephaestus President Dim-itrios Vekiarelis welcomed themembers and the special guests.Among other things he empha-sized that “the pioneers laid astrong foundation for the futuredespite the fact that Lemnos wasstill groaning under the Turkishyoke,” and gave succeeding gen-

erations examples of cooperation,and most importantly, love forthe association.

The Very Rev. Nektarios Pa-pazafiropoulos, the current deanof St. Demetrios, laudedAntonopoulos for his selfless ser-vice to the community over 47years.

Antonopoulos expressed hisdeep thanks and appreciation forthe award and his congratula-tions to the Association for their108 years of contribution to theGreek-American community andLemnos.

Elisavet Tsoumaka was theevening’s Emcee, and LefterisChasapis presented Fr.Antonopoulos with proclama-tions from State Senator MichaelGianaris and AssemblywomanAravella Simotas.

Alexander Tsoukalas then pre-sented the scholars in memory ofEracles Diamataris – the TNHpublisher’s late father – to PhilipLaskaris and Steven Pelagoudisand Stamatiki Valiotis presentedthe and Efstathios and StamatikiValiotis scholarship to Maria Pa-padopoulos.

The gala was also attendedthe consul general of Cyprus,Amb. Vasilios Philippou, whopraised the Association, and rep-resentatives of St. Demetrios, in-cluding its president NicholasSideris.

Philippou emphasized thatnow, as in the past the commu-nity comes to the aid of Greece

and Cyprus during their crises. The president of the Federa-

tion of Hellenic Societies ofGreater New York, Elias Tsek-erides announced that the Asso-ciation will be honored 75th an-niversary dinner of the

Federation. Its vice president,Christos Vournas, was present atthe TNH reception

The reception that was hostedby Diamataris the night beforethe gala had the feeling of a

heartfelt, family gathering.The guests enjoyed reproduc-

tions of historic photos, includingone of the visit paid to offices ofTNH in 1925 by EleftheriosVenizelos which was stamped“Limnos Studio.” The old picturesfrom Lemnos reminded people oftheir childhood years.

Vekiarelis spoke briefly aboutthe achievements of the Associa-tion, which through the yearshelped build hospitals, schoolsand churches on their beloved is-land.

He also emphasized the im-portance of attracting youngerpeople to the so that the batonof leadership could be passed onthe good hands, and concludedby saying how proud they werethat the publisher of The NationalHerald – which will be celebrat-ing its 100th anniversary nextyear – is from Lemnos.

Diamataris welcomed theguests, telling them “your pres-ence honors out whole family,our colleagues, and me person-ally.”

After speaking about the loveof Lemnos that binds togetherthose present, he noted that theAssociation’s honoree,Antonopoulos, is well- known toall for his service to the commu-nity from the pages of TNH andthe cover of its Periodiko maga-zine. He told the gathering “I con-sider myself a Lemnian.” Heshared his memories from hisfirst visit to the island and ex-pressed appreciation for the hos-pitality he received.

“They are family people withfaith and philotimo, they are peo-ple who know how to celebrateand honor themselves, their fam-ilies and Lemnos.”

Addressing the officers ofHephaestos and Maroula, Dia-mataris said, “you don’t makeyour contributions just to honoreach other, but from love for yourisland and your fellow Lemnians.He thanked them all for their ser-vice, and their love for the news-paper through the decades.

The reception, which was aforetaste of the gala, followed.

Pan-Lemnian Association Hephaestus Celebrates its 108th Anniversary

brother Alec Gores, is also in pri-vate equity and his $2 billionplaces him at number 273.

George Argyros, 77 years old,of Newport Beach, CA, is tied at260 with 12 other people, in-cluding media mogul Ted Turner.Real estate and investments ac-count for his $2.1 billion.

Michael Jaharis, 85 yearsold, is a titan in the pharmaceu-tical industry and ranks number273 with $2 billion. He and hiswife Mary have also distin-guished themselves as philan-thropists. They live in New YorkCity.

Concluding the Greek-Amer-icans on the list is, at number386, 67 year-old investor C.Dean Metropoulos, whosewealth is listed at $1.3 billion

According to Forbes, WarrenBuffet’s net worth had thebiggest increase, adding $12.5billion to his fortune. Facebook’sMark Zuckerberg’s fortune in-creased by $9.6 billion, which

put him back in the top 20.The accompanying article

notes that “Five years after thefinancial crisis sent the fortunesof many in the U.S. and aroundthe world tumbling, the wealth-iest as a group have finallygained back all that they lost.The 400 wealthiest Americansare worth just over $2 trillion,roughly equivalent to the GDPof Russia. That is a gain of $300billion from a year ago, andmore than double a decade ago.The average net worth of listmembers is a staggering $5 bil-lion, $800 million more than ayear ago and also a record. Theminimum net worth needed tomake the 400 list was $1.3 bil-lion. The last time it was thathigh was in 2007 and 2008, be-fore property and stock marketvalues began sliding. Becausethe bar is so high, 61 Americanbillionaires didn’t make the cut.”

See the complete list at:w w w . f o r b e s . c o m / f o r b e s -400/list/

Eight Greek-Americans onForbes 400 Wealthiest List

Costa Constantinides, NewAstoria City Council Member,Christens his District Office

Constituents at the grand openingreception for the district offices of CityCouncil Member Costa Constantinideswere delighted to meet his four year-old son Nicholas and wife Lori. StateSenator Mike Gianaris andAssemblyman Michael G. DenDekkerwere present and declaredConstantinides’ tenure to be off to agood start. He has already introducedthree bills.

(L-R): Jonathan Kagan, ASCSA Trustee; Nassos Michas, ASCSA Trustee and Gennadius LibraryOverseer; Dr. Maria Georgopoulou, Director, Gennadius Library; Robert McCabe, President ofthe ASCSA Board; Consul General Georgios Iliopoulos at the Kelari Seafood Taverna.

Continued from page 1

George ArgyrosMichael Jaharis

James S. Davis John Catsimatidis

The publisher of The National Herald, Antonis H. Diamataris, hiswife, Litsa, and their daughter, Vanessa, hosted a special reception

at the newspaper’s headquarters for their fellow Lemnians in an-ticipation of their society’s 108th anniversary annual dinner dance.

Hephaestos president Dim-itrios Vekiarelis presents Fr.John Antonopoulos with theAchievement Award for his 47years of service to the com-munity in this commemora-tive photo. RIGHT: The guestsat the Terrace on the Park inFlushing were delighted bythe performance of the chil-dren of the dance troupe ofPan-Lemnian PhilanthropicAssociation “Hephaestus.”

By Steve FrangosTNH Staff Writer

PART 1

CHICAGO- There is a historicpreservation movement now un-derway all across Greek Amer-ica. There is no central authoritydirecting or organizing itsprogress. No lone academic cru-sader or collection of ardentscholars is/are monitoring ordocumenting its movements.

Sadly, there is not even muchnews coverage found in theGreek or Greek-American pressabout this unprecedented andever growing social phenome-non. True, individual preserva-tion efforts are being featuredin the Greek-American press.But that’s not the point. Thereis a nationwide movement com-ing directly out of the Greek-American experience itself. It isthe recognition that an organiccollective movement exists thatis missing from our attention. Itis no exaggeration to say thatas each day passes more andmore individuals, collectives,and communities are becominginvolved with the process of pre-serving Greek-American history,culture, and experiences.

These efforts take on anynumber of forms: the establish-ment of church and/or localcommunity archives, launchingnew websites, depositing per-sonal and collective pho-tographs, manuscripts, the iden-tification and gathering ofhistorical objects, the deposit ofnewspaper accounts and otherdocuments in local communityhistorical societies and otherarchives outside the Greek com-munity itself but within theAmerican community in whichthe depositors live, public pro-graming of a wide array ofGreek music, cooking, and otherevents, the establishment of his-torical sites, the placement ofhistorical plaques, the register-ing of buildings and other places

onto the local and national his-torical registers, the openingmuseum exhibitions to the gen-eral public, the publishing ofquite literally a flood of personaland community based memoirs,radio programs on the Greek-American experience with oralhistories, and various otherkinds of collective public expres-sions.

That all of this activity is be-ing undertaken by Greek Amer-

icans within their home commu-nities makes these efforts all themore relevant. In modern socialscience studies the goal is al-ways to discover “the nativepoint of view.” This phrasemeans that the core beliefs andvalues of the group under study,as members of that group un-derstand them, are identified.

What follows will be a surveyof some of the latest actions andactivities in this new preserva-

tion movement. Given thatthese events are deeply embed-ded in local Greek-American his-tories some back ground discus-sion is mandatory.

The Coal Field Wars of 1913-1914, as they were later called,between laborers and the Rob-ber Barons spanned these twoyears. This ongoing disputecame to a head on OrthodoxEaster Sunday, April 20, 1914.On that day the Colorado Na-tional Guard attacked a tentcolony of 1,200 coal mine strik-ers and their families. The tentcolony was then set on fire asthe Colorado National Guardfired machine guns and rifle fireinto the camp. Around 7 p.m.,Louis Tikas the labor leader ofthis colony was killed by Lieu-tenant Karl Linderfelt. The nextday it was discovered that twowomen and eleven childrenwho had huddled within a pitdug below their tent had diedof asphyxiation. The dead in-cluded five other strikers, twoother youngsters, and at leastfour men associated with themilitia.

Violence between miners andmine company thugs continuedthroughout Colorado and north-ern New Mexico for the next tendays. This period has becomeknown as the Ten Day War. Inlate April, federal troops movedinto southern Colorado, almostimmediately restoring peace.The strike, however, continuedthrough early December, finallycoming to an end without reso-lution.

In 1918, the United MineWorkers of America erected amemorial at the site of the Lud-low tent colony to honor themassacre victims. Finding thismonument is something of achallenge since it is located in aremote southern Coloradoprairie. This huge granite mon-ument is founded on CountyRoad 44, about 1.5 km west ofInterstate 25, in Las Animascounty Colorado. In true robber

baron style after this infamoustragedy the Rockefeller familyhad the town of Ludlow (whichthey owned) razed. No physicalremains of this once sizabletown now exist. Despite thismassive effort to “disappear”this event from history, the Lud-low Massacre is ever-fresh in theminds and hearts of individualsaround the nation.

In early April of last year, adelegation of Southern Col-orado mayors, county commis-sioners, historians and others as-sembled in Denver to show theirsupport for a gubernatorialproclamation which dubbedApril 20, 2013 to April 20, 2014,the Year of the Ludlow MassacreCentennial. It should be pointedout that the Ludlow MassacreMonument is now listed as aNational Historic landmark.

As part of this cycle ofstatewide events on April 20,1914 the Greek communities ofDenver, Pueblo, ColoradoSprings, Trinidad and elsewherewill be visiting the Ludlow Mon-ument. The exact sequence ofevents is as yet to be finalized.For the moment, MetropolitanIsaiah of Denver and a numberof priests are scheduled to cele-brate an Agape Service at Lud-low, CO. Given the expectedlarge turnout of Greeks and oth-ers to this event (and the factthat it will be Orthodox Easter)adds to the tentative nature ofthe plans, at this moment intime.

In Lynne S. Brown’s historyof the city of Gulfport, FL wehear one version of the muchneglected Sponge Wars “whichdid not really begin until the1905 incursion of immigrantGreek divers. These so-calledwars represent a series ofevents, not always consideredimportant enough to mention inmany histories, but which werein fact a complex and crucialfactor in the founding of thisand other localities (South Car-olina: Arcadia, 1999).” Notice

the word incursion and thephrase “not always consideredimportant enough to mention.”Who makes these decisions, Iwonder? Remaining within the1913-1914 era, let us follow oneepisode of the protractedsponge wars.

“Terrible War Rages onFlorida Main; Fleets Sail Out toLoot and Burn” was one day’saccount of this ongoing “war”sent across the nation and theworld by wire service. Wagedbetween May and June 1914,we read quite clearly in theAmerican press of the dayabout, ‘’the War of the Sponges”in dozens and dozens of news-papers across the country. Pleasetake notice the language usedfor the Anglo spongers and thenthose for the Greeks even whenthe native-born are the crimi-nals. “The humble Americanspongers – the ‘conch,’ they arecalled – are responsible for thepiratical acts today. The success-ful Greek invaders of the spongefields, under Captain Harry Bell,commodore of the sponge fleet,are the victims (Fort Wayne Sen-tinel June 15, 1914).” Thehumble conchs threw dynamiteabroad Greek sponge boats be-cause the Greeks were better atharvesting sponges. John Manis,an African American, workingwith the Greeks, was burned todeath abroad one of these ships.Other Greek-owned ships wereboarded and burned to the wa-terline during this episode of thesponge wars.

Within the last couple ofweeks the Sponge Docks in Tar-pon Springs, due to sustainedlocal efforts, have been addedto the National Register of His-toric Places. And these are buttwo of the literally dozens of ac-tions taken by Greek-Americansto preserve the history and ex-periences of their local commu-nity.

[email protected]


A People’s History of Greeks in the United States: Ludlow, Sponge Wars

It is encouraging that Greek-Americans have taken active stepsto preserve their history and legacy in the United States invarious manners, not least of which the Ludlow Massacre Mon-ument, commemorating the 1914 massacre of miners in Col-orado by thugs, and the preservation of the Sponge Docks inTarpon Springs, FL as a historical landmark.

By Phylis (Kiki) SembosSpecial to The National Herald

I can’t remember when Istarted reading the obituaries. Ithink it started when I’d reacheda certain age. I’m not morbid orwallowing in curiosity or anx-ious to find someone I’d known.But, in reading what was writ-ten about the deceased, I learnso much about a person- theirtalents and deeds, what theirfamilies could say about them.In a strange way, I have the briefprivilege of meeting someoneI’d never known. Surprisingly, Isense the pride their families feltbefore illness took them away. Ihave to assume illness tookthem away. Nobody dieshealthy.

“Yiayia” Katina was loved byeveryone for her warmth andwonderful cooking. “Papou” Pet-ros, having come from Greeceas a young man, found the loveof his life in his wife of fiftyyears. Together, they lived lifeto the fullest, raising wonderful

children and grand childrenwho will miss them, greatly.Dina, in the small town in Penn-sylvania, taught Sunday schoolin the small church. Some sto-ries are fascinating; about menwho fought, heroically, in WWII,awarded Medals of Honor, hadrevisited Greece many times.Another had been a championswimmer in his youth who hadaspirations of being an Olympiccontender but had to take overhis father’s Greek grocery storedue to the financial situation af-ter his father’s death. Fotini willbe remembered for her manycontributions to St. John’s GreekOrthodox Church in her com-munity. Maria made everyonehappy just by walking into aroom.

So many wonderful peoplehad lived worthy lives withoutbeing noted for having amasseda fortune or had brought atten-tion to themselves by someboastful act; a relentless tide ofhumanity, each having given apart of themselves, each having

tried to make this world a littlebetter just by having lived in it.I still struggle with my faith,however.

I cannot forgive or accept aGod that takes away childrenbefore they’d had a chance totry their wings. And, I’ve neveraccepted that God needed them.

In all, I have come to realizethat we all have choices. We cantake and never give; we canturn away from those in troubleor stretch out a hand to them.We can try to understand whatmakes someone the way theyare or turn away.

We can smile and forgive afriend’s thoughtlessness or bringfurther hurt by shunning themin return.

None of us leaves this earthunscathed or as saints.

The Ancient Greeks believedthat each of us should try toreach up and imitate the Gods.It was an intelligent way for im-proving one’s self instead ofbowing our heads down andstaying there.

What I’ve surmised afterreading the obits is that, despiteall the good words writtenabout each departed, they’d,probably, made mistakes, too.After all, they were human. But,in the end, all that is trivial anddoesn’t really count in the big-ger picture. What really countsis that, like the driven snow, ourfootprints show, whether they’rebig, stomping prints or small,gentile ones. And, like the snow,it’s only for a very short time.They made a noise whether itwas a loud noise or a whisper.The obits make me want to goout into that pile of snow andstomp and laugh and makesnow angels with my grandchil-dren and celebrate life as longas I’m here – make a noise! I’verattled cages. And, I’ve not re-gretted those noises, marchingwith peacemakers, writing let-

ters to Congressmen and animalrights people in defense of thedefenseless, sending out streamsof mail, begging and wishingthey’d read any of my numerousmanuscripts.

I’ve tried to teach my kids to

make noise, too! Silence is notgolden! Silence is the domain ofthe departed. I hope that who-ever writes my obit will remem-ber the laughs, my fights againstgreat odds. In a way, we allwrite our own obits, don’t we?

Making Noise

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By Sofia MannosSpecial to The National Herald

WASHINGTON, DC – What is the secret tomouth-watering Greek cooking? Ask a 31-year-old Greek chef with a ready smile, fashionablejeans and a black chef's coat, and he'll say, "Kefi!"

"Whatever you do, do it with Kefi,” says Yian-

nis Yiannoutsos, a master chef visiting Washingtonto consult with the Mourayo Greek restaurant."That's the secret. It's the only word you can't ex-plain."

The Greek word, Kefi, is a combination of eu-phoria, happiness, heart, soul, and, perhaps, asense of hedonism, and watching Yiannoutsosdiscuss food recalls all the passions of his her-itage.

"To make good food, it doesn't need differenttechniques or amazing knowledge," says the chef."Just good quality products, respect for your prod-ucts and slow cooking."

There is a personal relationship that a cookdevelops with the dish, in a process that Yian-noutsos likens to creating one of the world's finestpaintings.

"Two people make the same dish, each tastesdifferent because cooking is an art and art cannotbe copied," he says. "Can anybody copy MonaLisa? Then, why can you copy my moussaka?"

The chef has been leading cooking classes atWashington's Mourayo on Sundays in Februaryand March. Participants are charged $80 eachand turnout has been good.

On a recent Sunday, nearly a dozen peoplewatched the chef prepare several dishes, includingFennel Soup served with Ice of Ouzo and Saffron,noting a “new trend” if hot soup with ice.

But not everyone was planning to go home toengage in the culinary arts.

As one participant said, "I'm not a good cook,I'm a better eater."

The chef kindly offered: "If you want to cookwell, first you have to know how to eat well. Andyou have to love it."

Yiannoutsos has a long resume that includesbeing an active member of the Chefs Club Dode-canese and Cyclades, and the Euro-Toques. He isalso a representative member for Greece at theInternational Association of Fruit and VegetableCarving and has studied cooking in Athens, Crete,and Thailand.

Kefi in the Kitchen

What’s the secret to great Greek cooking? Kefi,says Master Chef Yiannis Yiannoutsos.


TNH Staff

GALLOWAY, NJ – The RichardStockton College Interdiscipli-nary Center for Hellenic Studies(ICHS) announced the forth-coming creation of the Constan-telos Hellenic Collection andReading Room, in honor ofICHS Founder, Reverend Dr.Demetrios J. Constantelos, Pro-fessor Emeritus of History andReligion.

Zoe and Dean C. Pappas havedonated $50,000 toward thenew initiative, and The RichardStockton Friends of HellenicStudies have pledged $100,000.ICHS has announced a match-ing gift challenge, to raise an-other $150,000 in donations fora total of $300,000 in time forconstruction, set to begin inMay.

ICHS hopes the Collectionand Reading Room will be com-plete by September.

Executive Director Tom Pa-pademetriou in an ICHS pressrelease described Constantelosas one of the “great men in theHellenic tradition who personi-fies the true scholar, teacher andpriest. He has touched the livesof so many people, whether inthe lecture halls here at Stock-ton and other universities, in themultiple Greek Orthodoxparishes he served or even es-tablished around the country, orthroughout the world throughhis many articles and books onfaith, Byzantine history, andHellenism.

“We are pleased that the col-lege administration has chosento honor Professor Constantelos’contribution, and supporterslike Dean and Zoe Pappas andour Friends of Hellenic Studieshave come forward to offer sucha remarkable challenge. It is a

wonderful invitation to ourGreek-American community toparticipate in this once in a life-time opportunity to honor agreat man of our community,”Papademetriou said.

“The purpose of the Constan-telos Hellenic Collection andReading Room in the Bjork Li-brary is to provide print and dig-ital resources and study spaceto promote the study of Greeklanguage, history, and culture,”

the press release stated.“Rev. Dr. Constantelos is a

graduate of Holy Cross GreekOrthodox Theological School,where he earned a ThB. He hasserved as a priest of the GreekOrthodox Archdiocese for 53years, serving several commu-nities in New England, New Jer-sey and Maryland. After his or-dination he earned a ThM inNew Testament from PrincetonTheological Seminary, and a MA

and PhD in the history of Byzan-tine Civilization from RutgersUniversity. Having received sev-eral notable fellowships, includ-ing the Dumbarton Oaks Byzan-tine Studies Junior Fellowshipof Harvard University, he ad-vanced his scholarship throughhis exceptional knowledge ofAncient and Medieval Greekand an overwhelming passionfor Byzantine civilization. He isthe author of several books andhundreds of articles and bookreviews. Among the most no-table and groundbreaking isByzantine Philanthropy and So-cial Welfare. He has publishedand delivered papers nationallyand internationally, and amongother significant scholarly ac-complishments, edited twelvevolumes of the papers of Arch-bishop Iakovos of America, andserved as a member of the NewRevised Standard Version BibleCommittee of the NationalCouncil of Churches in theUnited States. Dr. Constantelos’scholarly focus continues to bethe link between Hellenism andChristianity.” Having served asProfessor of History and Deanat Hellenic College, ProfessorConstantelos arrived at Stocktonto teach in 1971, the press re-lease stated.

The Collection and ReadingRoom will build on the approx-imately 3,000 rare and impor-tant works from Constantelos’personal library, the press re-lease indicated. “Focusing onthe history and culture thatspans the ancient, medieval(Byzantine) and modern Greekeras, the Collection will con-tinue to expand its acquisitionsof Hellenic material that includeprint and digital resources,books, journals, newspapers,music, art and film, as well ashouse the NJ Greek-AmericanOral History Project. “

Stockton Coll. to Build Constantelos Reading Room

Students at the Stockton’s Hellenic Studies Center have a chance to study in Greece and visitthe magnificent Stoa of Attalos in Athens, pictured above. The Center will soon will feature theConstantelos Hellenic Collection and Reading Room, honoring the Center's founder.

ACROSS1 Pine Wine?7 Veep Spiro11 Birmingham's St. (abbrev.)12 Onassis' Flight Comp. (init.)13 Epic, in Greek16 The Ocean St. (abbrev.)17 Athenian Neighborhood20 Word on Power Switch21 Australian Nat'l Schools Network(abbrev.)22 Morning talk show host Philbin24 Fourth Greek letter27 Sold Oliver Douglas his farm inHooterville30 Angelic circle33 Schl. near Harvard (abbrev.)34 Emancipation Proclamator (init.)35 World War __36 With once, means right away37 Consumed a Spanish caramel custard?(2 words)40 Starred in Angels with Dirty Faces42 Provide food for a wedding43 Digital Gov't Navigator (abbrev.)44 History Teachers Assn. (abbrev.)46 Chocolate bar ingredient52 Social media predecessor of FB(abbrev.)53 501, to Caesar54 Sarah Palin's state (abbrev.)56 Ms. Bacall58 Greek version of this publication60 Gov't. of Norway (abbrev.)62 Soc. of Reliability Engineers (abbrev.)63 Greek prefix, precedes logy and calypse64 Frozen water65 Greek diphthong66 New age musician70 Nixon's famous dog, inspired speech71 Kennebunkport's state

DOWN1 Tsipouro2 Keyboard-focused Rock Grp. (init.)3 Any minute now4 Rockers Gillan and Astbury5 Greek soccer tm. (init.)6 __ and fro8 Oldest Brady son9 Love god10 Loss' opposite14 Priv. Investigator (abbrev.)

15 Type of red wine18 Dalai ____19 Actor Griffith23 Wall St. debut (abbrev.)25 Dig. Display (init.)26 Dismantled public Greek TV Station27 Starsky's partner28 N. Amer. trade accord (init.)29 Model/actress MacPherson31 Worldwide insurance co. (abbrev.)32 Singer Ronstadt33 Infamous Amer. traitor (init.)36 Libertarian Rand38 Devour39 Alleged to have fixed 1919 World Series(init.)41 Greek prefix meaning self45 Pertaining to (two wrds.)46 "Like taking _____ from a baby"47 "The Greek Tycoon" (init.)48 Mercedes model49 Richard Milhous _____50 Earvin Johnson's nickname51 Greek Socialist Party (init.)53 Tzatziki or taramosalata55 Ed of NY City Hall57 Brendon of Panic! at the Disco59 Lands on an umbrella, maybe61 Maiden name67 Before, and after, PM (init.)68 Canada's Continent (abbrev.)69 Chemical symbol for nickel

R H U T C H C A H R C

I R A I H O H H O P E S

C O R O N A G A R O H O P

A N D Y C P Y R U N I A

R A I N H A R A S O L O N

D L N I D O L T R O Y

O D G A R A P O S L P

S S B E N J A M I N O A

G O T B P R R

A A H G O N O T B H E A

D I K E S T E V E N S

M A U D E T R A K

O M N I T H E T A S L E

N S D P T E N S T D V

A O A S A N A R G Y R O I

Solution to last week’s puzzle

THE HERALD SQUARETNH's Crossword Challenge

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20

21 22 23

24 25 26

27 28 29 30 31 32

33 34 35 36

37 38 39 40 41

42 43

44 45 46 47 48 49

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60 61 62 63

64 65 66 67 68 69

70 71

www.CrosswordWeaver.com

Mike Manatos was present atboth events representing the Na-tional Coordinated Effort of Hel-lenes and although a represen-tative from the fourthparticipating organization, theConference of Presidents of Ma-jor American Jewish Organiza-tions, was not able to make thebriefing, the organization con-veyed its appreciation for themission’s undertaking via B’naiB’rith International Executive VPDaniel Mariaschin.

The briefing was titled, “TheIsrael-Cyprus-Greece Relation-ship: From Emerging to Sus-tained Relations & U.S. Role -Findings from Historic JointLeadership Mission to Israel,Cyprus, and Greece.”

AHEPA Executive DirectorBasil Mossaidis and Mariaschinjoined AHI President Nick Lari-gakis as panelists. AndrewKaffes, a participant on the mis-sion, moderated the briefing.

Larigakis told the gathering:“We appreciated the opportu-nity to share our experiencesand observations from the his-toric mission to a very importantaudience…The trilateral rela-tionship between Greece,Cyprus, and Israel is critical tostability in the eastern Mediter-ranean, and it must be sup-ported by the United States. Ourfindings from the mission reaf-firmed this notion and this mes-sage must be emphasized inWashington.

“The recent deepening of re-lations between Greece, Israel,and Cyprus is becoming increas-ingly reflected in cooperationbetween their diaspora commu-nities, and attention is shiftingfrom the impressive develop-ments of the recent past to plansfor the future.

Larigakis said, “Together, wealso touched upon future initia-tives, for example in the tourismsector, where we think we makea difference to further enhancethe relations in the region.”

According to AHEPA, “Thespeakers recounted experiencesand observations from theirmeetings with the 20-plus gov-ernment officials and from theirvisitations to various sites of im-portance, including a visit toTurkish-occupied Cyprus. Topicsranged from tourism initiatives,to energy finds in the easternMediterranean, to explaininghow group members gained abetter understanding of one an-other’s community challengesand issues.”

The speakers took questionsfrom an audience comprised ofcongressional staffers, embassyofficials, think-tank representa-tives, and members of the com-munity.

Also in attendance were twomembers of Hellenic Parlia-ment, both of whom haveworked to build the Greece-Is-rael Friendship Group in theGreek parliament. They werealso present for the CHIA cele-bration, as were members ofCongress, Ambassador ChristosPanagopoulos of Greece, Am-bassador George Chacalli of

Cyprus, Deputy Chief of MissionReuven Azar of Israel.CHIA LOOKS FORWARD AT

ANNIVERSARY EVENTThe CHIA alliance is co-

chaired by U.S. Reps. Gus Bili-rakis (R-FL) and Ted Deutch (D-FL). The latter told the guestsin the huge Transportation Com-mittee hearing room, “One yearago, we launched this caucus sowe could better address thechallenges in a region of greatimportance – the EasternMediterranean…The relation-ship between the US, Greece, Is-rael, and Cyprus can serve as anarc of stability in what has be-come a sea of instability…Thispartnership is valuable to theworld community.”

He noted – prior to the grow-ing tension spawned by the con-flict between Russia andUkraine, however – that thechallenges that prompted thecreation of the Alliance have be-come even more become evenmore pressing. “The situation inSyria is rapidly falling apart.Christian minorities face exis-tential threats in the region. Thebattle against Hamas andHezbollah is playing out there.And now, two contentious peaceprocesses - in Israel and Cyprus- will keep the world's eyes onthe Mediterranean.”

Bilirakis highlighted joint ini-tiatives Greece and Israel “thathave flourished in the areas ofdefense, energy, tourism, andcultural collaboration. In Octo-ber, Prime Ministers Netanyahuand…signed TEN separate co-operation agreements in the en-ergy, science, technology, cul-ture, and education sectors,”and added that “the discoveryof natural gas has resulted inexponentially enhanced cooper-ation between Cyprus and Is-rael.”

The CHIA celebration gave anumber of Greek-Americangroups the opportunity to sendmembers to Capitol Hill to visittheir Congress members anddiscuss community issues withthem.

HALC made it a weeklongadvocacy trip out of it and onthe day of CHIA’s anniversary,its visits were done in coopera-tion with the AJC.

HALC Executive DirectorEndy Zemenides told TNH“we’ve singed up a half dozennew members to CHIA. He saidthey had seven people comefrom New Jersey, 10 fromChicago, five from Baltimore,and one each from Virginia andBoston. “A lot of people tooktime out of their busy schedulesand it shows that if we engagepeople, they show up; they wantto do something and it’s time tochallenge the whole communityto step up. They can make a dif-ference,” Zemenides said.

Two Events Mark Deepeningof Greek and Jewish BondsContinued from page 1

Greek-Americanshad the chance toto discuss communityissues with theirmembers of Congress.

While on campus, Katagasplayed goalie and served as cap-tain of the Golden Bears men’slacrosse team. Coach JoelCastleman remembers insertingKatagas into the lineup as anuntested freshman after the

original starter left the team.“Anthony’s energy and skills

exploded on the field and heended up playing in most of theremaining games that year,” saysCastleman. “Anthony continuedto play lacrosse for four yearsand remains a close friend ofmine. He’s a very creative guy.”

Katagas has produced KillingThem Softly starring Brad Pitt,who was also a producer on theOscar winner. Other Katagasfilms include The Big Weddingwith Robert DeNiro, RobinWilliams, Susan Sarandon, andDiane Keaton; and The Immi-grant starring Joaquin Phoenix.

Katagas Wins Oscar for Best PictureContinued from page 1

Anthony Katagas, from left, Jeremy Kleiner, Dede Gardner, Steve McQueen, and Brad Pitt posewith the award for best picture of the year for "12 Years a Slave" during the Oscars.

Comments? The National Herald welcomes your response to any article or editorial.Please send e-mail to [email protected]

JOrDAN STrAuSS/iNviSiON/AP

president about anything, nowfound himself as Commander-in-Chief of the United StatesArmed Forces, who were em-broiled in World War II, thelargest military conflict in worldhistory.

Nazi Germany surrenderedwithin a few days of Trumantaking charge, but that wasmore an inevitability by thatpoint than a result of anythinghe did to affect it. But there re-mained the matter of Japan –the Axis power primarily re-sponsible for having lured theUnited States into war, follow-ing a surprise attack by Japan-ese kamikaze pilots on an Amer-ican Naval base at Pearl Harbor,HI on December 7, 1941. Hav-ing only recently developed themost devastating weapon of alltime, the atomic nuclear bomb,the United States warned Japanto surrender, lest it suffer thebomb’s devastating effects. A de-fiant Japan insisted on fightingon, and Truman ordered the cityof Hiroshima to be bombed –and three days later Nagasaki –until Japan finally acquiesced.Though about 200,000 Japan-ese civilians were decimated bythe bomb, it was widely under-stood that by ending the warmore quickly, Truman had savedthe lives of twice that manyAmerican troops, and millionsmore Japanese.

WW II ended with Japan’ssurrender, but gave way to an-other war of sorts – dubbed theCold War – which was a state ofheightened tension between theUnited States and its wartimeally, the Soviet Union, whichwas led by its forceful and terri-torial expansion-minded leader,Joseph Stalin.

COLD WAR BEGINSThe first real test of the Cold

War – Soviet support for com-

munist regimes throughout theworld and American support fortheir resistance – was in Greece,which was immersed in CivilWar from 1946 to 1949. TNH,in fact, recently reported aboutGeorge Polk, the American jour-nalist who was murdered inGreece during that war (Frontpage, Feb. 22). On March 12,1947, in response to the Greekgovernment’s call for help to theAmericans, to defeat the com-munist rebels, the president is-sued the Truman Doctrine, aproclamation to Congress re-questing military assistance toGreece (and to Turkey) in itsfight against the communists.

THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE“I do not believe that the

American people and the Con-gress wish to turn a deaf ear tothe appeal of the Greek Govern-ment,” said the president.“Greece is not a rich country.Lack of sufficient natural re-sources has always forced theGreek people to work hard tomake both ends meet. Since1940, this industrious and peaceloving country has suffered in-vasion, four years of cruel en-emy occupation, and bitter in-ternal strife.

“As a result of these tragicconditions,” he continued, “amilitant minority, exploiting hu-man want and misery, was ableto create political chaos which,until now, has made economicrecovery impossible.

These were threats to “thevery existence of the Greekstate,” Truman said, and “thereis no other country to which de-mocratic Greece can turn. Noother nation is willing and ableto provide the necessary supportfor a democratic Greek govern-ment.”

Though acknowledging thatTurkey at the time had nowherenear the political instability thatGreece did, Truman acknowl-

edged Turkey’s economic diffi-culties and implored that a sta-ble Turkey is “essential to thepreservation of order in the Mid-dle East.”

TRUMAN STATUEIn a wider context, the Tru-

man Doctrine shaped U.S. for-eign policy for decades to come,as the superpower was commit-ted to helping nations through-out the world resist succumbingto the dictatorial rule under theSoviet Iron Curtain. For Greece,it meant defeat for the commu-nists in 1949 and an end to theGreek Civil War.

The Order of AHEPA fi-nanced a bust of Truman to becreated by renowned sculptorFelix De Weldon and deliveredto Athens, where it was donatedin May 1963, prominentlyplaced in Downtown Athens,where it still stands today –though sometimes only afterhelped back onto its pedestalfollowing bouts of vandalism.

Truman visited the statue inMarch 1964, the 17th anniver-sary of the Truman Doctrine,though he was there for a dif-ferent reason, the funeral ofKing Paul. At the time, opposi-tion to the statue had nothingto do with anti-American senti-ment. As the Miami Herald re-ported, objections focused onwhether the statue was artisti-cally consistent with Greeksculptures, and others protestedthat before any other statue waserected in Athens, there shouldhave been one of the Ancientstatesman Pericles.

Since that time, however, theTruman statue has suffered anumber of attacks – graffiti,

physical toppling, even dyna-mite explosions – as demonstra-tions against American foreignpolicy. It is “the most sufferingstatue in Greece,” Athens ViceMayor Andreas Varelas told theWall Street Journal Last June.The U.S. Embassy in Athens per-petually contacts Varelas askingwhen the statue will be cleaned– a typical attack involvessmearing it with paint – theJournal reported.

Is it just a case of randomvandalism? No, says the Jour-nal, it is emblematic of theGreek left’s opposition to Amer-ican influence on Greek politics.Konstantina A. Botsiou de-scribed this sentiment in AntiAmerican Perspectives (BrendonO’Connor, ed., Greenwood,2007), depicting how Greece’snewspapers often satirize theircountry’s government’soverindulgence to do America’sbidding – the constant cleaningand restoring of the statue de-spite the repeated attempts totear it down richly symbolizingthat phenomenon.

NO THANKSIf the Pew Research Poll is

any indicator, the two countriesfor which the Truman Doctrinewas specifically established,Greece and Turkey appear to beleast supportive of Americanforeign policy. Despite an opti-mistic New York Times op-edpiece by University of PiraeusProfessor Aristotle Tziampiris,in which he happily reports adecline in anti-Americanism inAthens, according to PewGreece tops the poll as the na-tion most strongly opposed toUnited States drone policy.

Turkey is also very close to thetop – in fourth place.

Historian Howard Jones inhis seminal monograph on theTruman Doctrine, A New Kindof War (Oxford University Press,1989) put some of the anti-American sentiment into per-spective: the Communists inGreece sought different tacticsof subversion, off of the battle-field. The United States, in turn,had numerous multiple andever-increasing Cold War con-cerns and could not continue todevote substantial time, energy,

and effort to Greece’s stability.In a stinging rebuke to

Greece’s apparent indifferenceto the Truman Doctrine, venturecapitalist Bill Frezza, who oftencomments on the Greek crisis,wrote in Forbes that unlikeother countries that were notrescued from Post-WWII Sovietdomination, “Greece wasbrought back from the brink bymassive western intervention aswell as a Churchillian side dealthat obliged Stalin to butt out.The nasty civil war between theGreek Communist Party (theKKE) and government forcesbacked by Britain and the U.S.set the stage for decades ofstruggle between communistsympathizers who never gaveup the dream, and right wingjuntas determined to rule byforce. The uneasy peace that hasexisted since the colonels werebooted merely masks underly-ing tensions as every Greek wor-ries, is someone else workingfewer hours than I am?”

Let the country that inventeddemocracy, he wrote, be the firstto go beyond the bounds of so-cialism and try on communismfor size. It is what Greece de-serves, he said.SHADES OF GRAY, AND RED

Though there is no evidenceto suggest this is what the van-dals had in mind, the smatteringof different colors hurled uponthe Truman statue in Athensperhaps the most fitting figura-tion of the Truman Doctrine’slegacy in the 21st century: nota clear, vivid, singular color, buta mosaic of various shades. Per-haps, then, Greeks’ reaction tothe Doctrine and to Harry Tru-man himself if entirely negativemight be ungrateful, and whollyuncritical might be superficial.


The Truman Doctrine at 67: Recalling How Greece Averted Iron Curtain

Beware of Bearing Gifts to Greeks? The statue of Harry Truman, a gift to the people of Greeceby AHEPA, has stood in Downtown Athens for more than 50 years. During some of that time ithas been attacked by vandals, who have toppled it, smeared it with paint, and even tried toblow it up with dynamite.

“I had many early experi-ences visiting Byzantine archi-tecture,” he continued. “Thefirst of which were HagiaSophia, Agia Irene and theChurch of the Holy Savior inChora in Constantinople; theChurch of the Rotunda in Thes-saloniki, the Basilica of San Vi-tale in Ravenna, the Basilica ofSan Marco in Venice and othersin Italy.”

An artist’s experiences arepowerful combination of themessages of body, heart andmind, and Calatrava told TNH,“I felt I had discovered the mostbeautiful spaces, sites, frescos,and mosaics I had ever seen. Itwas an architecture dominatedby a sense of order and a kindof mathematical perception ofthe beauty of the cosmos.”

The architect would have feltvery much at home in Constan-tinople, where Plato and Aris-totle had as passionate devoteesas the parties in the theologicaldisputes that often roiled thecapital of the Byzantine Empire.

Calatrava also thoughtdeeply about the relationshipsof Justinian’s Great Church tothe city of Constantinople, andof the new St. Nicholas to NewYork.

“Hagia Sophia dominates theprofile of the city and givesidentity to the Bosphorus. In thecase of St. Nicholas, quite theopposite is true. New York Cityis dominated by a skyline ofcommercial towers. Under-standing that, I tried to create asingle object, composed of thedome set within corner towers,that could create a visual linkbetween the human scale of theindividual New Yorker and thegigantic scale of the surround-ing towers. The building tries,in its abstract shape, to emulatehuman proportions.”

Asked if there were also ele-ments of the Pantheon of Rome,which may have influenced theEmperor Justinian’s architects,he said, “As an architect youcannot avoid the Hagia Sophia

and the Pantheon. In comparingboth monuments, personally, Ifeel that the Pantheon repre-sents a pure creation of the hu-man spirit. It is a synthesis ofform, proportion, and beauty,realized as a perfect sculpture.Hagia Sophia, in my opinion, isall about space. It is one of themost beautiful spaces in the his-tory of architecture. Its interiorsublimates matter into purespace through the sheer force ofthe natural light.”

But Justinian’s church wasnot just “geometry realized instone,” as some ancient com-mentators noted.

“In Hagia Sophia, upon en-tering through the exonarthex,through the narthex and intothe nave through the royaldoors, you feel the architecturebuild to a crescendo. You feelyou are floating in a universe ofform and beauty. You get a senseof place; of arrival. You feel thepermanence of the space – thatthe whole universe is static. Ha-gia Sophia has that great aforce,” he said.

In St. Nicholas, which will beconsiderably smaller, those ex-periences can only be hinted,

but Calatrava, who is also asculptor, can create a palpablefeeling though the voids andmasses.

“Being that architecture isthe most abstract of the arts, thearchitecture of both buildingstranscend and remain in ourmind as a sublime sense ofbeauty,” he said, but “the Pan-theon and the Hagia Sophia canboth be considered as sculp-ture,”

The model of the new churchhas the feel of being molded byhands, so it was not surprisingto hear that he is planning togo Sifnos, which he has visitedseveral times. He will work inpottery, for which the island isfamous.

HELLENIC INSPIRATIONHis experience of the Greek

islands was a formative creativeexperience for Calatrava.

“I studied classical architec-ture during my early training.As a 20 year old student, I trav-eled to Greece. In Athens I stud-ied the Acropolis, and then Itraveled to the Greek islands tolearn from the beautiful Greekvernacular architecture.”

If anyone doubts the power

of Greece to continue to inspirethe world’s artists and thinkers,they need only listen to the manwhose buildings have trans-formed landscapes around theworld.

“Some of my favorite placesin Greece include the Acropolisand the old Archeological Mu-seum in Athens, where I onceheard the most beautiful lectureon sculpture from the antiqui-ties to the present day. On theGreek Islands, the harmony be-tween the visual settlement andthe natural landscape inspiresme greatly.”

Ground Zero, however, withits overpowering memories of ahorrific day, is the ultimate chal-lenge to an architect seeking toeffect physical and emotionalharmony.

He calls St. Nicholas “a wit-ness of our time,” and the de-sign must respond “to functionalneeds, but, in this particularplace, thinking about 9/11,” thebuilding must transcend them,“as a statement of enduranceand faith in the future.”

Despite the aesthetic and sizeconstraints the Port Authority ofNew York and New Jersey hasplaced on the church, Calatravawants to give the building “anunmistakable presence in thesite,” which will be effected byboth the building’s form andmaterials.

“We are using local and mod-ern techniques like concrete andsteel for the structure,” but theexterior will be clad in stone,”he said.

The renderings suggesttranslucent surfaces that willshine in the daytime and glowat night.

To design the interior –which has aesthetic priority inthe Orthodox Church – Cala-trava said “I have been learningabout the liturgical and icono-graphical aspects of the buildingfrom his Eminence, ArchbishopDemetrios. He is leading, withhis knowledge and experience,the iconographic program whichI consider a very important as-pect of the building.”

Asked if a minimalist icono-graphic program is an option,he said “Personally, I am veryattracted to the idea of the pu-rity of a white space where thelight reflects.”

TNH has been informed thatconstruction will begin this yearand that Calatrava will continueto be involved in the project. Itis hoped that it will be com-pleted in time for the parish’s100th anniversary in 2016, andthe Archdiocese is looking to

celebrate Pascha 2017 there. Ca-latrava will continue to be in-volved during construction.

To the Greek Orthodox Chris-tians in America, Calatrava said,

“I would like them to under-stand about the Church of St.Nicholas, as ArchbishopDemetrios explained it to me inour first conversation, that it isanchored in the tradition of Or-thodoxy but looks forward tothe 21st century.”

In his closing meditation ona place that will be visited bymany thousands and observedby millions each year, Calatravasaid, “I would like the church tobe a place in which it is possible

to experience a link betweenMan and God; a place of gath-ering, of reconciliation, of be-reavement, of peace, and ofprayer for every visitor.”

The Spirit of Hagia Sophia Breathes into Calatrava Design for St. Nicholas

Santiago Calatrava was born in Benimàmet, near Valencia,Spain. He studied at the Polytechnic University of Valenciaand engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology,but visits to Greece and Constantinople were important partsof his artistic education.


Calatrava says that during the daytime, the new Church’s morehuman scale will help visitors to the World Trade Center findinner harmony in the canyon of skyscrapers.


President Truman, shown here with Archbishop Michael in 1950.The archbishop appealed to the president for assistance in lo-cating Greek children abducted by the Communist rebels duringthe Greek Civil war and returning them to their parents.

D O N ’ T M I S S

Our annualEaster SpecialAPRIL 19, 2014

Members of the community who wish to send an Easter greeting are welcome to place an ad.To advertise or to obtain rates:tel: (718) 784-5255 ext. 101, e-mail: [email protected]

DEATH NOTICES

n

AFENTUL, CONSTANTINECANTON, OH (From the Repos-itory, published on Feb. 15) –Constantine "Gust" Stavros Afen-tul passed away unexpectedlyon the evening of Feb. 11, 2014.Born in Canton, Ohio, on Oct.8, 1931, and lifetime resident,Gust was preceded in death byhis parents, Stavros and Agape(Beoglos) Afentul. A graduate ofCanton McKinley, class of '49, healso attended Kent State Univer-sity. As a young man, Gustproudly served his country in theU.S. Air Force, 7300th MaterielControl Group stationed atChâteauroux-Déols Air Base inFrance, serving with the alliesduring the Korean War. Gust hadmany lively and amazing storiesof his time, that have taught hisgrandchildren many lessons. Hevisited many world cities, includ-ing the Holy Lands, Christ'stomb, and what amused thegrandchildren were the photosof 'Papou' on a camel in front ofthe great pyramids of Egypt.Gust was preceded in death byMargarita, his wife of over 51years, whom he met whilebriefly stationed in Greece. Hehad seen her portrait in the win-dow of a photography studio,and the rest as they say, is his-tory. Margarita always lovedteasing that the first words outof his mouth were "Will youmarry me?" Other than his par-ents, Gust was preceded in deathby his beloved older brotherGeorge Afentul (Henrietta) ofVero Beach, Fla.; nephew, FredAfentul (Kay) of Jacksonville,Fla.; and various aunts, unclesand cousins. He is survived byhis two daughters, Mary Mitsos(Dr. Angelo), their childrenJohn, Constantine 'Dino'(Nicole), and Emmanuel of NewCastle, Pa.; also surviving is He-len Boone (Leo) and theirdaughter Alexandra Rita-Marieof Crownsville, Md.; his grand-children were the apple of hiseyes, and to them he was 'Papou'(Grandfather); Gust is survivedby his sisters, Parthena 'Bertha'Maragakes (George) of Exton,Pa., and Helen Dimos (George)of East Canton; also survivingare numerous beloved cousins,nieces and nephews. Gust was afriend to everyone, and well-known by many in Canton - es-pecially to the Red Cross, whowas on a first-name basis withhim for being an avid donor.Gust received the title "The LifeGiver" for donating over 99 pintsof blood to those in need. Hewas a lifetime member of HolyTrinity Greek Orthodox Church,The Holy Trinity Men's Club, Se-nior's Club, and a participant farand above the call of duty, withthe annual Greek Festival at theCanton Civic Center, and as aformer employee of Sears, wasa member of their group. Toclose friends and family, he wasknown as 'Coke, or Uncle Coke.'He loved his Coca Cola! Gustwas very kind hearted, and al-ways lent a helping hand. Hewill be forever loved and trulymissed.For those who wish, do-nations in memory of Gust Afen-tul can be made to Holy TrinityGreek Orthodox Church.

n ANASTASOPOULOS,EVANGELOS

NEW HAVEN, CT (From theNew Haven Register, publishedon Feb. 20) – Evangelos “An-gelo” Anastasopoulos, 79, ofEast Haven passed away Feb. 16,2014 inThe Connecticut Hos-pice, Branford. He was the hus-band of Maria Varsos Anasta-sopoulos. Mr. Anastasopouloswas born in Evrytania, Greeceon March 25, 1934, son of thelate Anastasios and VassilikiAnastasopoulos. He came to thiscountry in 1971 and was in-volved in the restaurant businessin Falls Church, VA. and in NewHaven, where he was the ownerof Angelo’s Lunch on Orange St.and Charlie’s Place in The Cen-tury Building at Church andGrove St. He was a member ofSt. Barbara Greek OrthodoxChurch. Besides his wife, he issurvived by three sons, Anasta-sios “Andy” Anastasopoulos ofSouthington, Dimitrios Anasta-sopoulos and his wife, ChristinaMilletti of Buffalo, N. Y. andBasil Anastasopoulos and hiswife, Courtney Garza of West-port; and seven grandchildren,Khristina, Enjelika, Stefany,Nicholas, Zazie and Xeni Anas-tasopoulos and Sydney Meserve.He was predeceased by abrother, Panos Anastosopoulosof Athens, Greece and a sister,Chrysoula Siafakas of New York,N.Y. Friends may call at The Ce-lentano Funeral Home, 424 ElmSt. (cor. Dwight), New HavenThursday (TODAY) from 5 to 8pm and are invited to attend fu-neral services at St. BarbaraGreek Orthodox Church, 480Racebrook Road, Orange Fridaymorning at 10:30 am. Intermentin Orange Center Cemetery.

n bOUKAS, EVANGELOSLOWELL, MA (From the LowellSun, published on Feb. 16) –Evangelos Boukas, 82, died un-expectedly on Tuesday, February11th, at his home. He was wasthe beloved husband of the lateMerope (Lagoutares) Boukas,who passed away on November7, 2009. Evangelos was born inTripolis, Greece on March 10,1931, a son of the late Christina(Koleros) and Nicholas Boukas.For many years, Evangelosworked as a Shoemaker in theLowell Shoe Factories and lateras a machinist for Prelco Corpo-ration. He is survived by hisdaughters, Christine Boukas ofLowell, and Irene Liakakos andher husband, George of Nashua,NH; and step-daughter, Kather-ine Koumoutseas of Maryland;his siblings, Peter Bookas ofLowell, and Sophia (Boukas)and Theodoris Boukas and hiswife, Afrodite, all of Greece; aswell as six cherished grandchil-dren. Relatives and friends areinvited to pay their respects onMonday, February 17th from 5-8 p.m. at the DRACUT FUNERALHOME, 2159 Lakeview Ave.,Dracut. His funeral will takeplace from the funeral homeTuesday, February 18th at 9 a.m.with his Funeral Service to beheld at 10 a.m. at Holy TrinityGreek Orthodox Church, Lowell.Interment to follow in WestlawnII Cemetery, Lowell. Donationsmay be made in Evangelos'memory to the Holy TrinityGreek Orthodox Church, 62Lewis Street, Lowell, MA 01854.To leave an online condolence,story or message, please visitwww.dracutfuneralhome.com.

n DIMITRAKOPOULOS,PANAYIOTI

DAYTONA BEACH, FL (From theDaytona Beach News-Journal,published on Feb. 12) – Panayi-oti "Peter" Dimitrakopoulos, 82of Daytona Beach, Floridapassed away Monday, February10, 2014. The family will receivefriends on Wednesday, February12th between the hours of6:00~8:30 pm with the Trisa-gion Service beginning at 8:00pm at Lohman Funeral Home;733 W. Granada Blvd followedby the funeral services on Thurs-day at 11:00 a.m., February 13stat Saint Demetrios Greek Ortho-dox Church, 129 N. Halifax Ave.Daytona Beach. Interment willfollow at Daytona MemorialPark. Peter was born to the lateGeorge and Athanasia Dimi-trakopoulos of Kalamata, Greecewhere he served as a Police Of-ficer. He was a very successfulRestaurateur in Montreal,Chicago, and in Daytona Beachwith Byron's Grill. He was amember of St. Demetrios GreekOrthodox Church, an avidreader, especially when it cameto history and politics. He wasan outstanding soccer player inhis day, and enjoyed the cama-raderie with his friends. Most ofall his passion was spendingtime with his three grandchil-dren. He will be greatly missedby his son, George (Helen) Dim-itrakopoulos, Ormond Beachand his three grandchildren, An-thanasia, Panayioti, and Petros.He was preceded in death by hiswife of 42 years, AnthanasiaDimitrakopoulos in 2001 as wellas three brothers. The family hasrequested that memorial contri-butions be made in Peter's mem-ory to: St. Demetrios Greek Or-thodox Church 129 HalifaxAvenue, Daytona Beach, Florida32118. Condolences may beshared with the family atwww.lohmanfuneralhomes.com.Arrangements are under thecareful direction of Lohman Fu-neral Home Ormond.

n FOTOPOULOS, GEORGELORAIN, OH (From the MorningJournal, published on Feb. 23)– George Fotopoulos, 83, of Lo-rain, fell asleep in the Lord Fri-day, February 21, 2014, in hishome, following a lengthy ill-ness. George was born August15, 1930, in Peloponnese,Greece. He immigrated to Lorainin 1966. George retired from theblast furnace of U.S. Steel LorainWorks in 1980. He had workedthere for 14 years. George wasa member of Saint NicholasGreek Orthodox Church in Lo-rain, and a member of the Orderof AHEPA and the United SteelWorkers Local 1104 Lorain.George liked to be in his garden,walking at the mall, playingpinochle, visiting with his friendsand spending time with hisgrandchildren. He will be deeplymissed by his children, Saman-tha (Fernando) Maskarino of Lo-rain and Peter (Maria-Imee) Fo-topoulos of White Plains,Maryland; and grandchildren,Christina, George, Miko, Adrienaand Sylvia. George was pre-ceded in death by his wife of 52years, Asimo "Sylvia" (née Pap-pas) Fotopoulos in 2007; par-ents, Panagiotis and Veloudo(née Mpentevi) Fotopoulos; andbrothers, Foti and Aeliki Fo-topoulos. His family will receivefriends Monday from 4 to 8 p.m.in the Richard J. Reidy FuneralHome, 1783 E. 31st St., SouthLorain, where Trisagion will beat 7 p.m. in the funeral home.Friends my all call Tuesday from

10:30 a.m. until time of his fu-neral service at 11 a.m. in SaintNicholas Greek OrthodoxChurch, 2000 Tower Blvd., Lo-rain, OH 44053. The Rev. Proto-presbyter Father Michael C. Gul-gas, Pastor, will officiate. Burialwill follow at Elmwood Ceme-tery in Lorain.

n KAMbEROGIANNIS,PETROS

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ (From theStar-Ledger, published on Feb.20) – Petros Kamberogiannis,90, of South Orange, N.J.,passed away peacefully in hishome on Feb. 14, 2014. Funeralis today, Thursday, Feb. 20, at11 a.m. at Ss. Nicholas, Constan-tine and Helen Greek OrthodoxChurch, Roseland, N.J. Inter-ment is in Fairview Cemetery,Westfield, N.J Visitation washeld yesterday at Paskas FuneralService, 145 E. Mt. Pleasant Av-enue, Livingston, N.J. (973)467-1882. For information anddirections, go to paskasfuner-alsvc.com. Petros was born inVithos, Greece, and moved hisfamily to America in 1970. Heis survived by his loving and de-voted wife, Afroditi; children,Sophia and Stathi Patatoukas,Bobby and Chrisanthi Kambero-giannis, and Athanasios andSandy Kamberogiannis andgrandchildren, Sandy, Stergios,Nick, George, Petros, andAfroditi. Memorial contribu-tions in the memory of Mr. Kam-berogiannis to the Alzheimer'sFoundation of America are pre-ferred.

n KASTANOS, ANDREWJOHN

SHREVEPORT, LA (From theDallas Morning News, publishedon Feb. 21) – John Kastanospassed away peacefully on Feb-ruary 16, 2014, at the age of 97,surrounded by his family. Helived a simple and humble life,focused on his family, his faith,and hard-work. These are alltraits he learned growing up inAndros, Greece, his birthplace.To support his family, he lefthome at the age of 15 andjoined the Royal Greek Mer-chant Marine, where he servedsix years aboard a ship sailingaround the world. Then, at theage of 21, like many before him,he sought a better life and im-migrated to the United Statesthrough famed Ellis Island inNew York City. Then, in 1947,after serving in the UnitedStates Army and later in theUnited States MerchantMarines, he became a UnitedStates citizen. Thereafter, he fol-lowed his family to Dallas,Texas, where he made his per-manent home. He began workin the restaurant business, work-ing his way from simple cook,to chef, to head chef, and ulti-mately, owner of four fine-din-ing establishments in the DallasMetroplex known as "Vincent'sSeafood." As he fulfilled his own"American Dream", he inspiredothers to work hard and strivefor their own greater successes.As with his work, he was pas-sionate about his family. Hemarried Constantina StergiosKastanos in Athens, Greece, in1951. Together they made theirhome in Dallas, Texas, wherethey were members of HolyTrinity Greek Orthodox Church.After retiring from the restau-rant business, he and his wifemoved to Shreveport and joinedSt. George Greek OrthodoxChurch. In retirement, hegreatly enjoyed relishing in theachievements of his grandchil-dren and watching his great-grandchildren grow-up. He ispreceded in death by his par-ents, three brothers, and threesisters. He is survived by his wifeof 63 years, Constantina; hischildren: Petroula KastanosAnagnostis and husband Dr.George Anagnostis of Arlington,Texas, Lily Kastanos Mijalis andhusband Johnny Alex Mijalis ofShreveport, and John AndrewKastanos and wife Sophia CosseKastanos of Shreveport; hisgrandchildren: Andrew Anag-nostis and wife Lyndi of Dallas,Texas, Constantine Anagnostisof Ft. Worth, Texas, DimitriAnagnostis of Ft. Worth, Texas,Alexander Mijalis and wifeDaphne, Andrew Mijalis, DeanMijalis and wife Stephanie, allof Shreveport, Andrew Kastanosand fiancé Maris Emanuel ofDallas, Texas, Jonathan Kas-tanos and wife Mignon of Dal-las, Texas, and Dena KastanosSmith and husband Nathan ofShreveport; and great-grand-children: Aiden and LawsonLetch, Georgios Anagnostis,Jonathan, Mark, and Evie Mi-jalis, and Jack Kastanos. He isfurther survived by numerousnieces and nephews both hereand in Greece that he kept intouch with throughout theyears. Visitation will be heldfrom 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m.on Friday, February 21, 2014,with a Trisagion Prayer Servicebeginning at 7:00 p.m., at Rose-Neath Funeral Home on Mar-shall Street. The funeral servicewill be held on Saturday, Febru-ary 22, 2014, at 11:00 a.m., atSt. George Greek OrthodoxChurch. Officiating will be Rev-erend Honoring him as pallbear-

ers are his eight grandsons andone grandson-in-law, along withhis Godson, James Zoys, of Dal-las, Texas. Memorials in hisname may be made to the St.George Greek Orthodox ChurchIcon Fund, 1719 Creswell St.,Shreveport, La 71101.

n zAHOS, FOTIOSWOODBRIDGE, CA (From theLowell Sun-Sentinel, publishedon Feb. 22) – Born October 29,1932 in Argostoli, Kefalonia,Greece, Fotios Paul Zahos passedat the age of 81 on Sunday, Feb-ruary 9, 2014 at 5:54 PM in hishome in Woodbridge, CA wherehe lived and raised his family for37 years. Fotios, Paul as manyin America knew him, grew upduring World War II and the oc-cupation of his beloved Kefalo-nia at the age 6 and the GreatEarthquake of 1953 his island.He would often speak about theday-to-day struggles of findingfood and hiding in war tornbuildings these events perme-ated his life and strengthenedhis work ethic. He always re-membered what it was like tofeel true hunger. When heturned 18 he joined the Greekmilitary in Athens until the ageof 21. After he left the militaryhe continued to live in Athenswhere he and a friend openedand operated a handmade shoestore. In March 1964, he was in-troduced to Elpida Gerolimatos,in Kaligata, Kefalonia, Greece.They married six months afterthey met on August 24, 1964and they went to Athens wherethey welcomed the birth to theirfirst son, Petros in June 1965and their daughter Marika inSeptember 1967. Times inGreece were very difficult duringthis time with most people strug-gling to provide for their fami-lies. After the military juntas in1967 the Greek economy was inshambles and he knew they hadto leave. In order to make a bet-ter life for his family, Fotios soldhis business and moved toBoston, Massachusetts in 1970.After a short stay in Boston Fo-tios, moved to Lodi, CA. In Au-gust 1971 he was blessed withhis third child Jerry. In 1977, Fo-tios purchased his home inWoodbridge, CA where he livedwith his wife of nearly 50 yearsuntil his passing. He was a hum-ble hard workingman that careddeeply about his family andfriends. His life lessons haveshaped the lives of everyone hetouched and had a profound im-pact on shaping the lives of hischildren. He enjoyed fishing,gardening and reading his Greeknewspapers and books. His fa-vorite sport was soccer; he lovedhis team Olympiacos C.F.P., hisfavorite football team was theDallas Cowboys, enjoyed watch-ing golf and walking aroundLodi Lake. When he passed hewas surrounded by his lovingfamily and was in the comfortof his home. He will be missedand remembered by everyone hetouched and loved by his familyforever. He was preceded indeath by: Father: Petros Zahos,Mother: Marika Zahos, Brother:Gerasimos Zahos, Granddaugh-ter: Gillian Cordelia Paternostro.He is survived by: Wife: ElpidaZahos, Son: Pete (Petros) Zahosand his wife Kristi, DaughterMarikaZahos – Paternostro andher husband Pat, Son: Jerry Fo-tios Zahos and his wife Julie,Grandchildren: Alexander PaulZahos, Nickolas Scott Zahos,Matthew Petros Zahos and An-gelo Fotios Paternostro, Karly,Jakob, Danyele, Sierra, Cousin:attending from Kefalonia,Greece Evgenia Bekatorou.

n zERVOPOULOS, DR. EVANGELIA

NAPERVILLE, IL (From theChicago Tribune, published onFeb. 21) – Dr. Evangelia Zer-vopoulos, 92, of Naperville, ILwent home to be with the Lordon February 18, 2014. Evangeliais preceded in death by her hus-band, Yerasmus. She is survivedby her children John, Martha(Demetrios) ZervopoulosSiomos, Irene, and Peter(Anita). She is also survived byher grandchildren, Vassilis (Aus-tine) Siomos and Effie (David)Siomos McDougal and great-grandchildren, DemetriosSiomos, Persephone McDougaland Ares McDougal. Evangeliais also survived by her sister,Lela, and by nieces andnephews in Greece and Amer-ica. Evangelia was preceded indeath by her youngest sister,Georgia. Evangelia was bornand raised in Greece. Throughher childhood and adolescencein Pireaus, she developed a loveof music and became an accom-plished pianist. During her uni-versity years, she attended med-ical school in Greece and,following graduation, served aresidency in Geneva, Switzer-land. Evangelia's future life ofservice began to take shape inthe late-1940s when she mether future husband, Yerasmus,in the Greek Free EvangelicalChurch in Athens. By thedecade's end, they were en-gaged to be married. In 1950,Evangelia followed Yerasmus tothe United States. They marriedin Boston. Within the next few

years, Yerasmus earned a Ph.D.in theology from Boston Univer-sity. Evangelia accepted an ap-pointment as a medical residentin pediatrics and cardiology atBoston City Hospital; by the endof her residency term, she wasappointed chief-resident. By1955, John, Martha, and Irenehad been born. In 1956, Yeras-mus and Evangelia and the fam-ily moved to the Chicago-area.

Peter was born in 1960. Evan-gelia's life had several facets, allof which she lived out fully. Sheexhibited a genuine care for oth-ers and always saw the best inpeople. She was a loving wifeand a partner with Yerasmus inthe Lord's work. Yerasmus andEvangelia arranged to bring sev-eral Greek children sufferingfrom heart disease to Chicagofor surgery. She was a dedicatedphysician for 35 years in her pri-vate practice and as a staffmember of Swedish CovenantHospital and Children's Memo-rial Hospital. She made the bestpastitsio dish, a wonderful com-plement to Aunt Vi's bananabread. She was an inspiring rolemodel, as a mother, as a profes-sional, as a mentor to medicalresidents, and as a woman whotestified to God's grace by thelife she lived.

This is a service to the community.

Announcements of deaths may be telephoned to the Classified Department of The National Herald at

(718) 784-5255, monday through Friday,

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST or e-mailed to:

[email protected]

Days and dates of funerals,memorials, and other events di-rectly correspond to the originalpublication date, which appearsat the beginning of each notice.

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A/A06/03-15

BLACK ONYX CAPITAL, LLC. Articles of Organizationfiled with Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on12/09/13. NY office location: Kings County. SSNY hasbeen designated as agent of the LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. The post office address towhich the SSNY shall mail a copy of any process againstthe LLC served upon him/her is: NEEL KRISHNAN, 48Whipple Street, Apt. 1B, Brooklyn, NY 11206. AnyLawful Purpose.

273568/18968

HYACINTH CAPITAL, LLC. Articles of Organization filedwith Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on12/10/13. NY office location: Kings County. SSNY hasbeen designated as agent of the LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. The post office address towhich the SSNY shall mail a copy of any process againstthe LLC served upon him/her is: NEEL KRISHNAN, 48Whipple Street, Apt. 1B, Brooklyn, NY 11206. AnyLawful Purpose.

273567/18968

DANIEL DENNIS DUKELSKIY LLC, a domesticLLC, filed with the SSNY on 10/15/13. Officelocation: Kings County. SSNY is designated asagent upon whom process against the LLC maybe served. SSNY shall mail process to The LLC,100 Oceana Dr. W., Unit 1H, Brooklyn, NY11235. General Purpose.

273276/10709

Notice of formation of WONDERPROPERTY LLC Articles of Org. filed NYSec. of State (SSNY) 01/17/2014. Office inKings Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC uponwhom process may be served. SSNY shall mailcopy of process to: Wonder Property LLC,8606 Flatlands Avenue, Brooklyn, NY11236. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

273255/18926

Notice of Formation of TRIPLE APP LLC, a do-mestic LLC, Articles of Organization filed withthe SSNY on 12/20/2013. Office location:Kings County. SSNY is designated as agentupon whom process against the LLC may beserved, SSNY shall mail process to: THE LAWOFFICE OF SERGIO MUNOZ SARMIENTO, 310Powers St. #3L Brooklyn, NY 11211. Purpose:Any Lawful Purposes.

273265/18937

Notice of formation of Elenatos Realty, LLC.Articles of Organization filed with the Secretaryof State of New York (SSNY) on April 25, 2013.Office location: Kings County. SSNY designatedas agent of LLC upon whom process against itmay be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 25218th Street, Suite 5A, Brooklyn, NY 11215. Pur-pose: any lawful purpose.

273248/18925

Notice of formation of Tomrick Realty, LLC. Articlesof Organization filed with the Secretary ofState of New York (SSNY) on April 25, 2013.Office location: Kings County. SSNY designatedas agent of LLC upon whom process against itmay be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 25218th Street, Suite 5A, Brooklyn, NY 11215.Purpose: any lawful purpose.

273249/18925

Notice of formation of ATP & Associates RE Fund,LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Sec-retary of State of New York (SSNY) on January3, 2014. Office location: Kings County. SSNY des-ignated as agent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNY shall mail processto: 252 18th Street, Suite 5A, Brooklyn, NY11215. Purpose: any lawful purpose.

273250/18950

Notice of formation of 950 ST MARKS APTSLLC Articles of Organization filed NY Secre-tary of State (SSNY) 5/24/11 Office inKings Co. SSNY designated Agent of LLCupon whom process may be served. SSNYshall mail copy of process to: The LLC POBOX 300513 Brooklyn, NY 11230. Purpose:Any lawful activity.

273247/18588

Notice of Formation of AL 66, LLC., a limitedliability company (LLC). Arts of Org. (DOM.LLC) filed with Secy. of State of N.Y. (SSNY) on01/17 /2014. Office location: Nassau County.SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whomprocess against it may be served. SSNY shallmail process to: 1 Sunbeam Rd., Syosset, NY11354. Purpose: any lawful activity.

273578/18976

923 PUTNAM MANAGEMENT LLC Articles ofOrg. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 1/28/14 Of-fice in Kings Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLCupon whom process may be served. SSNY shallmail copy of process to The LLC 5308 13th AveSte. 165 Brooklyn, NY 11219. Purpose: Anylawful activity. Latest date of dissolution is1/1/64.

273573/18588

Notice of formation of LAY OF THE LAND,LLC. Articles of Organization (Dom. LLC)filed with Secretary of State of NY (SSNY)on 08/08/13. Office location: Kings County.SSNY is designated for service of process.SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at 364Graham Ave #5, Brooklyn NY 11211. Purpose:any lawful purpose.

273576/18972

8012 16TH AVENUE, LLC Articles of Org.filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 1/9/2014.Office in Kings Co. SSNY desig. agent of LLCupon whom process may be served. SSNYshall mail copy of process to 1 Main St., Apt.10E, Brooklyn, NY 11201. Purpose: Anylawful purpose.

273590/10801

OVER THE TOP TABLE TOPPERS LLC, Arts. ofOrg. filed with the SSNY on 01/27/2014. Officeloc: Kings County. SSNY has been designated asagent upon whom process against the LLC maybe served. SSNY shall mail process to: 4823 BayParkway, Brooklyn, NY 11230. Purpose: AnyLawful Purpose.

273587/16818

Notice of formation of Silverwd LLC Arts. ofOrg. filed with the Sect'y of State of NY (SSNY)on 1/23/2014. Office location, County ofKings. SSNY has been designated as agent ofthe LLC upon whom process against it may beserved. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o TheLLC, 73 Hancock St., No. 1, Brooklyn NY 11216.Purpose: Any lawful act.

273594/11629

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OBITUARIES CLASSIFIEDS10 THE NATIONAL HERALD, MARCH 8-14, 2014

TO PlACE yOur ClASSiFiED AD, CAll:

(718) 784-5255, ExT. 106, E-mAil:

[email protected]

By Andy Dabilis

NICOSIA – Only a few days af-ter they rejected, Cypriot law-makers okayed a bill to privatizea host of state-owned compa-nies, a move that will enable thecountry to receive its next batchof rescue money.

The 30-26 vote in favor over-turned the initial rejection of thelegislation and was due to asmall right of center party back-ing the bill following govern-ment concessions on job secu-rity. The parties of the leftcontinued to balk at the policy,which they see as a sell-out.

The vote came a day before aMarch 5 deadline set by creditorsto pass the bill. The governmenthad warned that failing to ap-prove the legislation would putthe country at risk of bankruptcyin the next couple of months.

Cyprus must raise 1.4 billioneuros ($1.93 billion) from pri-vatizations as a condition of lastyear’s 10 billion-euro ($13.8 bil-lion) rescue deal with other Eu-rozone countries and the Inter-national Monetary Fund. Therescue money is distributed aftercertain targets are met.

Finance Minister HarrisGeorgiades applauded the votewhich he said ensures that thecountry can stay afloat and onthe path toward stability.

“Apart from being an obliga-tion, the privatization programis also an opportunity to attractinvestment, bolster efficiencyand competitiveness and shedthe weight of state control onsignificant sectors of the econ-omy,” Georgiades said.

The vote in favor came afterthe government made revisionsto the legislation that it saiss ad-

dressed job security concernsand which will give lawmakersa say on how the privatizationprogram proceeds.

Those were demands thatthe center-right DemocraticParty, or DIKO, insisted be in-corporated to ensure its support.“We are satisfied with theamendments and this allows usto approve the legislation,”DIKO leader Nicholas Pa-padopoulos said.

Now up for sale then are thecountry’s state-owned telecom-munications, electricity andports authorities, among others,although it could take until2015 as the country is trying tocome out of a deep recession.

The legislation stokedprotests from some 5,000 work-ers fearing for their jobs andlifetime benefits, but got thebacking of the ruling DISY,

DIKO, and two MPs, EVROKO’sDemetris Syllouris, andZacharias Koulias, an indepen-dent, approved the bill.

AKEL, EDEK, the Greens, andCitizen’s Alliance deputy NicosKoutsou, voted against the leg-islation.

Approval of the bill was nec-essary for the release of the nextbailout installment €236 million($324.3 million) from thebailout that also came with a re-quirement the government con-fiscate 47.5 percent of bank ac-counts over 100,000 euros,about $137,000.

The privatization aspect hadbeen fiercely fought by unionsand workers and the Parliamentinitially rejected it easily untilPresident Nicos Anastasiadeswon support with concessionsthat critics said would supportworkers although there weren’t

any details. However, workers belonging

to state telecoms CyTA, thepower company, EAC, and theports authority, continued tohave concerns and the CyprusMail reported they held three-hour strikes and protested dur-ing the vote. Earlier they hadshut down power supplies for awhile as well.

They want jobs to be securedand Parliament to have a say atevery stage of the privatizationprocess. The protesters shouted“Hands off CyTA”, “CyTA is notfor sale” and other slogans.

CyTA union rep Alecos Try-fonides suggested that the billcontained provisions, whichwere unconstitutional, mainlyas regards the organizations andthe rights of the workers.

“This wealth can remain instate hands by restructuring and

modernizing them, so they canhelp the state at any momentand at the same time avoid vic-timizing the workers,” he said,The Mail reported.

Papadopoulos said provisionswere improved, with Parliamenthaving a say from start to finish,taking some of the power out ofthe hands of the President andrequirement lawmakers to agreeand approve the sale of assets.He didn’t say what would hap-pen if they veto any.

“Not even a chair can be soldor transferred to a third party ifParliament does not approve,”he said.

DISY leader Averof Neophy-tou suggested that everyoneshould be able to take part inthe privatization and buy stakein the organizations although itwas not reported how that wasviewed by the Troika.

GREECE CYPRUSTHE NATIONAL HERALD, MARCH 8-14, 2014 11

Second Time around, Cyprus OKs Privatization of Several Companies

at this time,” noted Venizelos,"wants to contribute as much asit can to the stabilization of thesituation in Ukraine, to bringabout order and safety, a goodtransitional government and ademocratic consensus that willengage all the forces in theUkraine – political, social, re-gional – and lead the country toa restoration of democratic order,to presidential elections, to asmoothly functioning system ."

Venizelos explained that hisnext steps in this direction willbe taken in Kiev, which he vis-ited immediately after his tripto Mariupol. He had meetingswith the new Ukrainian leader-ship, followed by his participa-tion in meetings of EU foreignministers in Brussels.

"At the present time, the ur-gent task is to overcome the ten-sion between Russia and the

Ukraine," Venizelos said, notingthat the goal is to "normalizethe situation, as required by in-ternational law."

“I consider it the obligationof Greece, which holds the six-month EU presidency, to comehere to be informed directly bythe new Ukrainian authorities,so that we can, as Greece andas the European Union, helpachieve the objectives men-tioned above, which concernyou, because you want to feelsecure that you live is a statethat functions and protects you."

Venizelos said that he hascomprehensive informationabout the problems and needsof Hellenism in Mariupol andthroughout Ukraine.

He said he bears a message ofGreek President Karolos Papou-lias, Prime Minister Samaras, Par-liament and all political forces,and added: “I feel that the foreignministry and the government as

a whole are on your side. TheConsulate General and our Em-bassy in Kiev is your home. If anyneed arises, our assistance willbe immediate, practical, effective,and in concert, as always withthe Ukrainian authorities, withwhich we must have excellent re-lations, so that we will be effec-tive in what we do."

Historian Vlassis Agtzidis haswritten that in southernUkraine, in the Sea of Azov re-gion, in the Crimea, Odessa andother places, based on the lastSoviet census of 1989 therewere 104,091 Greeks. Theythemselves argue that their ac-tual number is twice thatamount, but tens of thousandsof Greeks were forced duringperiod of Stalinist persecutionsto identify themselves as eitherare Russians or Ukrainians.

Meanwhile, there have beenthreats against the life of Greek-Ukrainian Olga Kovitidi, deputy

president of the AutonomousRepublic of Crimea. She toldMega that she and several othermembers of the local govern-ment of the peninsula have re-ceived threats after the recentdevelopments in Ukraine:"Once we decided on the refer-endum, we began to receivephone calls which threatenedour extermination,” referring tothe decision to accelerate thetimetable for a referendum onthe future status of the Russian-speaking autonomous republic.

"Even now, we receive threat-ening messages, but we are notafraid. When I came out of theparliament building, they toldme that one way or another theywill execute me, but above allwe care about the interests ofCrimea, so we are scared by na-tionalists and other extremists,"Kovitidi said, who is one of twodeputy presidents in Crimeawho are of Greek origin.

Greek Foreign Minister Venizelos Visits, Reassures Greeks in Ukraine

position party leader threatenedto overturn the deal if he comesto power.

Tsipras blasted the sale as agiveaway of state assets and saidif he comes to rule he will re-view the legality of all conces-sion contracts for privatization.

“Let everyone keep thisfirmly in mind,” he said at aSYRIZA event: “Wherever thenew Parliament finds that thepublic interest is not protected,we will not hesitate to cancel orreview contracts and decisionstaken,” he said, the AthensNews Agency reported.

He sounded an ominouswarning of nationalization andprosecution for current govern-ment officials. “Nothing and noone will be forgotten. All thosewhose actions or omissions haveharmed the public interest willface justice’s verdict for their ac-

tions and omissions,” he said.The 1482-acre site, aban-

doned for 13 years, is one of themost attractive for usage in thecountry and was a linchpin ofGreece’s hopes to start bringingin revenues from the stalled ef-fort to sell of state enterpriseson the orders of internationallenders.

It was supposed to becomethe biggest urban park in Eu-rope but Greece, desperate forcash during a crushing eco-nomic crisis, is trying to sell offits assets and enterprises.

The state privatizationagency HRADF said onlyGreece’s Lambda Developmentmade an offer. It was involvedin the building of the AthensMall that a court said violatedthe law and imposed penaltiesor possible demolition. The com-pany said its bid is supported byAbu Dhabi’s Al Maabar andChina’s Fosun Group.

HRADF said it will take twoweeks to process the bid. ALambda Development statementsaid the total investment wouldbe worth more than 7 billion eu-ros ($9.56 billion) and wouldcreate tens of thousands of jobs.

It said its project includedcreating residential, recreation,sporting and cultural facilitiesat the 620-hectare (1530-acre)former airport, which would in-clude 200 hectares (495 acres)of park. Past governments hadpledged to turn the site into ahuge park, but did nothing.

Tsipras also criticized the roleof HRADF, accusing it of being“a clique deciding on the futureof public wealth without trans-parency, without Parliamentarysupervision and control, as if itwere property they inheritedfrom their grandfathers.”

He said that SYRIZA viewedHellinikon – which successiveGreek governments had for

years promised and failed totransform into a metropolitanpark and greenspace – as “alandmark of the struggles of citymovements to defend publicspaces” and pointed to a plandrawn up by the National Tech-nical University of Athens(NTUA) as a “well-supportedand budgeted proposal” thatwould avert the destruction ofthe Attic landscape.

Government spokesmanSimos Kedikoglou, respondingto the leftist leader, said, “Onceagain, Tsipras is attempting toundermine the country’s exitfrom the crisis, threatening in-vestors and showing no interestin the creation of thousands ofjobs. We shall not allow Ellinikoto become his party’s landfill.”

Israel’s Elbit Cochin aban-doned the tender process onFeb. 25 about the same timethat a third bidder, London &Regional Properties, had asked

for an extension of four monthson the Feb. 27 expiry of thedeadline for binding offers.

The Israeli company said itwas eager to make an offer butsaid the draft contract for thesale was clouded and didn’thave sufficient data.

In 2005, the Hellenikon sitewas set to be developed intogreen space twice the size ofNew York’s Central Park but wasdelayed and as the country raninto a crushing economic crisisplans turned toward develop-ment, which has lagged becauseof the country’s bureaucracy anduncertain investor interest.

The site is seven kilometersfrom the city’s center alongprime seaside frontage and latelast year a Metro stationopened, making it even more at-tractive for investors.

The plans call now for morebuildings and fewer trees andless grass or green space,

prompting outcries from envi-ronmentalists and mayors ofseveral municipalities.

The government of Qatarearlier pulled out because itwanted direct negotiations withthe government and no otherbidders involved.

Prime Minister AntonisSamaras, the New DemocracyConservative leader, was pin-ning a lot of hopes on the saleof the Hellenikon site to kickstart a privatization programthat was supposed to bring in50 billion euros ($68.54 billion)but so far has brought in onlyabout 2.6 billion euros, ($3.56billion).

The term of the coalitiongovernment that includes thePASOK Socialists, doesn’t runout until 2016 but Tsipiras saidthe ruling parties will be repu-diated in May Greek municipaland European Parliament elec-tions and force early polls.

SYRIZA’s Tsipras Says if He’s PM, He’ll Overturn the Sale of HellenikonContinued from page 1


Greek Deputy Prime and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelosmeets with Ukraine's Interim President, Olexander Turchynov.

By Andy DabilisTNH Staff Writer

ATHENS – With Eurozone fi-nance chiefs on March 10 set tomeet in Brussels and decidewhether to release a delayednine billion euro ($12.3 billion)bailout installment, Greece andits international lenders hopedto come to terms over unfinishedreforms.

Finance Minister YannisStournaras said the governmenthoped to have at least a "goodprogress report" from represen-tatives of the Troika of the Euro-pean Union-International Mon-etary Fund-European CentralBank (EU-IMF-ECB) if a fullagreement hadn’t been reachedby then.

“Nothing is unbridgeable. Weare trying to bridge our differ-ences," Stournaras told reportersafter a meeting with Prime Min-ister Antonis Samaras to discussthe negotiations.

An Administration ReformsMinistry top official said that,“We remain adamant to our po-sitions. Nothing has closed yet,we will meet again … if we whohave a simple job can’t agree,you can imagine what it’s likefor other issues.”

Greece has been surviving on$325 billion in two rescue pack-ages that run out this year andneeds to meet a 10 billion euro($13.67 billion) bond paymentin May at the same time as criti-cal elections for Greek munici-palities and the European Parlia-ment.

Samaras’ coalition of his NewDemocracy Conservatives andtheir partner the PASOK Social-ists face a stern challenge in thepolls from the major oppositionCoalition of the Radical Left

(SYRIZA) that is leading in sur-veys.

SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsiprassaid he believes the governmentwill be repudiated and forceearly elections before its termends in 2016 and that he willcome to power. He said he wouldrevise or renege on the bailoutterms.

The Troika is currently press-ing for sweeping changes in mar-ket practices and labor rules buthasn’t been able to reach anagreement despite six months ofnegotiations.

The government has commit-ted to 80 percent of 153 undonereforms recommended in a so-called Toolkit from the Paris-based Organization for EconomicCooperation and Development(OECD) but that hasn’t satisfiedthe Troika.

Also on the table is a disputeover how much more moneyGreek banks need on top of the50 billion euros ($68.6) from$325 billion in two bailouts. Theestimates range from 5-20 bil-lion euros and are holding up aresolution on the talks and asthe Bank of Greece this week isset to reveal the results of stresstests on state financial institu-tions.CRYING OVER SPOILED MILK

After all the major structuralreforms that have been ploddedthrough, the negotiators are alsodown to minutiae as well, includ-ing lender demands to extendthe shelf life of milk – essentiallyto allow sales of expired products– and to let supermarkets sellnon-prescription drugs, an ideafiercely fought by pharmacistswho want to keep a monopoly.

“It is not possible that milk isexpensive in Greece as a resultof the 35 percent that is pro-

duced locally and not the 65 per-cent that is imported,” a top gov-ernment official told Kathimerinion the condition of anonymity.Critics have said Greek dairiesoperate as a cartel to artificiallyinflate the cost of their products,which sometimes cost more lo-cally than when exported.

In response, pharmacists saidthey would strike for two dayson March 10-11 to show theiranger at the Troika and govern-ment for pressing for market re-forms in their industry.

Union President KyriakosTheodosiadis urged the Greekgovernment to dismiss the OECDreport concerning pharmaceuti-cal care. “Everyone can realizethat competition and health aretwo concepts incompatible witheach other. We denounce thatthis report can neither be thegovernment’s gospel nor a newmemorandum-product, prefabri-cated in command of the largeinterests which it apparentlyserves,” he said. The druggistssay only they are qualified to selldrugs that don’t require a doc-tor’s order, although interna-tional lenders have been pressingthe government to break up mo-nopolies given certain profes-sions.

Unlike in the United Statesand many other countries,Greeks can only buy items suchas non-prescription pain killersin drug stores which are closedmost afternoons at 2PM as wellas on the weekends. There is arotating system in which someare open at other hours duringthe evenings and into the nextmorning but most are closed oth-erwise.

Unionists warned that if thegovernment surrendered to the“irrational demands of Troika

representatives without a fight,the Euro-elections could takeplace with closed pharmacies.”That was in reference to Mayelections for Greek municipalitiesand the European Parliament.

Pharmacists said they wouldlose so much money if they can’tsell non-prescription drugs as amonopoly that some 11,000drug stores would close and thatonly they are qualified to sell theitems.

“Medicines are not consumerproducts. Competition andhealthcare are incongruous con-cepts,” said Theodosiadis.

Another pending issue is the

transfer of 4,000 more civil ser-vants into a public sector mobil-ity scheme so Greece can meetits target of shifting 25,000 em-ployees in total. That is code lan-guage for firing them.

Administrative Reform Minis-ter Kyriakos Mitsotakis has askedfor these positions to be takenby 4,000 municipal employees,which has apparently riled Inte-rior Minister Yiannis Michelakis,prompting Samaras and Venize-los to get involved.

Greece and its internationallenders have decided there isn’ta hole in the 2014 budget, savingSamaras from the prospect of im-

posing more unpopular austeritymeasures.

The Athens News Agency(ANA) reported a governmentspokesman said, “We are at apoint that a political decisionmust be taken until the Eu-rogroup meeting on March 10�the day when the finance chiefsfrom the 18 countries that usethe euro, including Greece, willhave their get-together.

Samaras said the country willhave a 1.5 billion euro ($2.07)billion primary surplus and hasvowed to give back 70 percentof it to those hit hardest by thecrisis.

Greece, Troika Still Apart, but Stournaras Hopeful about Bridging Differences

One of Top Jewish-American Organizations Meets with VenizelosThe American Jewish Committee (AJC) met with Greece’s Deputy Prime Minister and ForeignMinister Evangelos Venizelos in Athens. Andy Manatos, the founder and president of the NationalCoordinated Effort of Hellenes, standing near the podium, accompanied the delegation.

EurOkiNiSSi

EDITORIALS LETTERS12 THE NATIONAL HERALD, MARCH 8-14, 2014

Reader Lauds TNH on Parthenon Enigma Story

To the Editor:Please allow me to congrat-

ulate Constantinos Scaros’ qual-ity of coverage of Joan BretonConnelly’s book The ParthenonEnigma (“Was Parthenon Builtto Glorify Human Sacrifice?”(Feb. 1). Such detailed and well-researched coverage I have notseen anywhere else. The livelycontroversy it created and its ex-tent can only bring once moreto the fore that despite currentproblems, Greece was the cre-ator of world civilization.

On the controversy itself, de-spite the fact that ProfessorRomm is a believer that the friezedepicts the Panathinaia, he some-how debunks his own argumentby stating “Greek temple friezes,as far as I know, did not showcontemporary events, but rather,scenes from mythic eras…” I am

personally shocked that neitherthe New York Consulate nor theEmbassy in Washington has in-dicated interest in the book.

Ulysses YannasNew York, NY

Greeks Do Great Work,Except for other Greeks

To the Editor:Re: “Is There a Greek Gene

of Mistrusting?” (Dr. John A.Tsiouris, Jan. 4). My father onceadmonished me never to hire aGreek to do work for me. He ex-plained that Greeks are fineworkers for non-Greeks; theyare honest, men of their word,and hardworking. But when itcomes to one Greek adult malehiring another Greek adultmale, there is a game that onewill try to trick the other called“tha se yelasi – he will fool you.”

I never hired a Greek untilwe bought a grape farm inAcampo, CA. The farmhousehad not been painted for years,so, forgetting Pappa’s advice, Ihired a Greek from one of theislands to do the job. I got homeearly from my college teachingjob one day to find out that hewas watering down the paintand stealing it, to boot. I chewedhim out good and proper inEnglish and told him to start allover again for the same price he

had quoted me. I emphasizedthat if he did a good job, Iwould, as a bonus, buy him afive-gallon tub of paint in a colorof his choice.

He finished and did a goodjob, so he got his paint. We re-mained friends. But when I hada large shop built behind thehouse, a non-Greek painted it. Ihave never hired another Greekto this day.

Dr. Thomas James AdamsFair Oaks, CA

Curious Candidate CalvacadeWe find it difficult to follow the reasoning regarding the candidates

the New Democracy Party has chosen for the upcoming municipalelections.

ND had a great opportunity to project something new and differ-ent. To present a comprehensible message of progress and change,and to field competent candidates accordingly.

It is surprising and disappointing, then, that ND has selected ArisSpiliotopoulos as its candidate for Mayor of Athens. Something similarhappened in Thessaloniki, in the race for regional prefect.

At least their choice for Prefect for the Attica region, EuropeanParliament Member George Koumoutsakos, makes some sense. He isa young man with a European spirit, even though he has no experi-ence to that position.

Really, are these the best choices ND can make?We suspect that ND leader and Greek Prime Minister Antonis

Samaras did not want to enter his best horses in these importantraces. Maybe he underestimates the danger from the young, dynamicSYRIZA candidates, and the threat from Kasidiaris of Golden Dawn.

If that is the case, and he is taking the local races lightly, he ismaking a mistake.

For decades, municipal elections have sent important politicalmessages, and for good or for ill, that has not changed.

Therefore, the forthcoming municipal elections will also sendpowerful political messages that will generate momentum going intothe European elections that follow a week later, which will send evenstronger political and national signals.

For that reason, it is difficult to see how Spiliotopoulos’ candidacyis the breath of fresh air that the people are looking for, the turningof the page from those who caused the crisis to those who will bringthe country out of it.

So, what is going on? Were these choices based on internal partygames, to maintain political balances?

That is probably a factor in the equation; political motives arerarely absent from politicians’ maneuverings.

But that is not in line with needs of the times, or with the chal-lenges of the immediate future.

Transparency DerailedTo err is human. Only those who do nothing do not make mistakes.

Everyone else does. We all do. It is human – it is inevitable.If nothing else, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras works harder

than any other Greek prime minister. Along with his correct decisions,then, he is bound to make mistakes.

Even on the critical issue of the economy where, unfortunately,unemployment reached unprecedented heights 27%.

But there is one problem, arguably the biggest in Greece, wherethere is no room for error: transparency.

If this problem is not cured, if the country does not begin to func-tion on the basis of transparent democratic practices and institutions,it will not see real economic improvement and there will be no sub-stantial investment.

That will surely increase the frustration and dismay of the peopleand God knows where that will lead.

Consider the latest issue of the Economist: “Disputes over liberal-izing the market for fresh milk and allowing supermarkets to sellnon-prescription drugs underline how the fragile coalition governmentled by Antonis Samaras, the centre-right prime minister, is heldhostage by interest groups.”

The report does not target Samaras personally, but it aims at thegovernment he leads, and so Samaras himself indirectly bears re-sponsibility.

Take for example the sale of Hellenikon, the site of the formerAthens airport through which so many of us passed so many times inour lives. Properly, the government is proceeding with its privatization,regardless of whether it is also demanded by the troika. It is not pos-sible for this remarkable property to remain abandoned forever.

But how does it look that the sole remaining bidder is the Latsisgroup, now that the others have withdrawn their offers in disgust?

How is it possible that so many international business groups whowere interested in Hellenikon, including a Las Vegas casino mogul,great financier and friend of Israeli political leaders, got sick of theprocess and abandoned the project, leaving only one group?

Moreover, didn’t the same thing happen with the privatization ofOPAP? What investments are they talking about when two or threeGreek companies, the ones that controlled the country in the past,continue to control it now?

Samaras will do a tremendous service to Greece, perhaps themost important one of all, if he faces up to this situation.

If he does not, then nothing else of substance can be done.

Reagan ReminiscencesThe crisis in the Ukraine has prompted backlash toward the Obama

Administration, with the naysayers proclaiming that if Ronald Reaganwere still president, Vladimir Putin would not dare be so confidentlydefiant about his position, particularly amid strong criticism fromAmerica and the world.

Fine. For argument’s sake, let us agree that Reagan might havebeen more effective at deterring Russian military adventurism thanBarack Obama has been. After all, the then-Soviet Union did notannex a single parcel of land during the Reagan years, and Reagan iswidely credited for ushering in the end of the Cold War.

Beyond the “I wish Reagan were still president” rhetoric, however,who – if anyone – from either major party today would cause Putinto behave differently?

Consider the current list of favorites for the 2016 presidentialnomination. Democrats Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and if the Tristatearea rumblings mean anything, Andrew Cuomo. Republicans, in turnare tossing around the names Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan,Ted Cruz, and, despite the unresolved Bridgegate scandal, ChrisChristie.

If we are going to criticize President Obama about not standingup to Putin firmly, we should ask ourselves whether any of the afore-mentioned alternatives would achieve a better result.

Because Ronald Reagan is no longer an option.

LETTERS TO THE EDITORThe National Herald

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The National Herald welcomes letters from its readers intended forpublication. They should include the writer’s name, address, andtelephone number and be addressed to: The Editor, The NationalHerald, 37-10 30th Street, long island City, Ny 11101. letters canalso be faxed to (718) 472-0510 or e-mailed to [email protected]. we reserve the right to edit letters for publicationand regret that we are unable to acknowledge or return those leftunpublished.

Observations By Antonis H. Diamataris

Enough Already, Senator

As evidenced by his recent Wall StreetJournal op-ed piece “Abysmal Ambassado-rial Nominations,” Republican Senator JohnMcCain continues to exploit, quite shame-lessly, George Tsunis’ candidacy for Ambas-sador of Norway.

Granted, Tsunis made some gaffes duringhis confirmation hearings before the SenateForeign Relations Committee, but thatmight very well have been a result of jittersrather than lack of knowledge or qualifica-tions.

Moreover, he certainly was not the firstto make gaffes and surely won’t be the last,and also will not be the last ambassador tobe appointed – particularly to “safe” coun-tries such as Norway – as a reward for cam-paign contributions. That is simply an in-evitable reality of politics.

Nancy Pelosi, after all, was an ardentsupporter of Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis’Ambassadorship to Hungary, and a benefi-ciary of lucrative business dealings with theTsakopoulos Family.

Senator McCain’s burst of patriotism,then, on this issue, is late and hypocritical.I’m sure that if he had been elected presi-dent, he would have done the same, if notworse, regarding rewarding generous cam-paign contributors with ambassadorial ap-pointments.

His crocodile tears, therefore, are notconvincing, and it is time for him to stop.

But Tsunis needs to respond as well. Witha well-written response, justifying his qual-ifications for the position, and pledge thathe will serve as a good ambassador, therebyvindicating his selection, and honoring theUnited States of America.

Astoria Burglary Spree

With a large and recently-growing Greekimmigrant population, Astoria is one of themost beautiful, safe, and emergent neigh-borhoods in New York City.

Its diverse areas, replete with markets,restaurants and cafes, create a very pleasantatmosphere for couples and singles alike.

On top of that, it is only a few minutesfrom Manhattan by train, which runs everyfive minutes during the day. That rendersAstoria an attractive, affordable alternativeto prohibitively-expensive Manhattan.

But as we have reported on our websiteand in the Greek edition, a wave of recentrobberies raise questions about Astorianeighborhood safety.

Break-ins occur by people who enterbuildings from fire escape windows, policesay. There have been 39 recorded recentcases in the heart of Astoria.

This, of course, can happen anywhere,and it does not mean that Astoria is notsafe.

A thief has picked this area for robberies,but it is only a matter of days until he iscaptured.

And the publicity surrounding this issuewill cause police to intensify their efforts toarrest him soon.

Until then, take the necessary precau-tions: lock your windows and front doors,etc. until the storm passes.

We might be in a downpour now, butsunshine is on the horizon.

AGORA – THE ORIGINAL MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS

CONSTANTINOS E.SCAROS SHARES HIS POINT

OF VIEWDan, I am a latecomer to the

Obama-bashing phenomenon.There were those who were

against President Obama to be-gin with – some stuck in theMiddle Ages who couldn’t stom-ach the fact that a man with adarker skin color than theirscould be their leader, many oth-ers whose prejudice was politi-cal, not racial, repulsed by thenotion of another Democrat,particularly of the “tax andspend” variety, in the WhiteHouse.

They were the near-40 per-cent who never even gave him achance from the start. But therest of those who caused thepresident’s approval ratings tofall from the mid-60s to the mid-40s are a mix of disgruntled for-mer supporters: some disap-pointed that he didn’t turn outto be the “different kind of politi-cian” they had hoped for, others,more practically, because of thesting of losing their job and/ortheir health insurance.

As long as the economy con-tinues to improve, and the tech-nical and actual hiccups of Oba-macare take a turn for the better,Obama’s approval ratings willhave bottomed out and will be-gin to climb back to 50 percentand above.

Through Obama-bashing'sfirst five years, I have buckedthe trend. Neither did I join theloons who insisted on seeing hisbirth certificate (lest he was bornin Kenya – how absurd!), nordid I expect him to transformpolitics profoundly – somethingthat his predecessors, fromGeorge Washington to GeorgeW., were unable to do.

Instead, I judge Obama byAmerica’s standing in the world.Oh, not whether America is liked– but whether America is re-spected and, if necessary, feared.

I wouldn’t give a rat’s poste-rior about whether the worldthinks of our president as an en-lightened citizen of the world ora trigger-happy cowboy. It’s notthat I don’t care about the for-eign masses, it’s that often theirlack of access to objective jour-nalism and their overexposureto and contamination via mind-controlling institutional propa-ganda taint their ability to drawinformed conclusions.

By standing in the world, Imean, are we in charge? I do

not support extortion based onour position of power. The lastthing I would ever want Americato be is crew of gangsters forcingterrified neighborhood mer-chants to pay protection money.I also abhor bullying of any kind.Shame on the biggest, burliestkid in school, who strongarmshis classmates in the schoolyardfor their milk money. But shameon him, too, if he lets some littleweasel whom he can crush withone finger push him around.

As I see it, we’ve had threegreat presidents in the post-WWII era in terms of standingup to our foreign enemies – mostnotably, the Soviet Union:Dwight Eisenhower, John F.Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan.The rest, from Truman to Clin-ton, practiced some version ofdétente. George W. Bush triedto be great – it’s not that hebacked away from a fight – hejust wasn’t a very good fighter.

Don’t get me wrong, I thinkresorting to violence, whether inthe schoolyard or on the battle-field, should only be the laststraw. But once you’ve becomeking of the mountain (as theUnited States did a few times inits history, most recently follow-ing the Soviet collapse in 1990),you have a sense of duty to staythere: not for the sake of war,but for the sake of peace.

I am troubled by Obama’slack of spending the “super-power capital” he inherited. Byshunning the world stage swag-ger that is his presidentialbirthright, and instead acquiesc-ing to being just “one of the topforces” on the sidelines. Some-one is going to claim that swag-ger, and just like Joseph Stalin,Nikita Khrushchev, and LeonidBrezhnev did, so will RussianPresident Vladimir Putin try.

This is not about whetherPutin is a madman or a misun-derstood foreign counterpartwho can be a valuable partnerto the United States: it is thatthere can only be one top dog.And for the sake of world peace,that top dog must be the UnitedStates, by default.

When the Soviet Union top-pled, I thought: “never again!”Never again would we live in aworld in which we had such aformidable adversary: a NaziGermany, an Imperial Japan, aSoviet Union.

So, if Barack Obama thinksthe way to a better America is tosolve big problems with a larger

role in government, he needs tocontinue to put that into practicein foreign affairs, too. That’s whyI supported his continued waron terror (even though hephased out that terminology).That’s why I don’t have a prob-lem with the NSA, or droningfirst and taking names later. Bythe same token, we need a pres-ident with the cunning of Eisen-hower, the determination ofKennedy, and the execution ofReagan to continue leading thenation another president, Abra-ham Lincoln, so aptly called “thelast, best hope of earth.”

DAN GEORGAKAS SHARESHIS POINT OF VIEW

Dino, you ask what role theUnited States of America shouldplay on the world stage and ifPresident Obama is playing thatrole well. I think we can look forsound guidance on these ques-tions by considering statementsby three distinguished presi-dents: George Washington,Theodore Roosevelt, and DwightEisenhower.

In his farewell address, Wash-ington warned us to beware ofwhat Thomas Jefferson termed“entangling foreign alliances.”The idea here is not that weshould be isolated from theworld but that we must be waryof being drawn into conflicts inwhich we have no vital interests.The turmoil in Ukraine comes tomind. Many Ukrainians are pro-Russia while many others leantowards the EU. We also knowthat in the recent fighting in thestreets, the “democratic” forcesincluded hooligans of theGolden Dawn variety. For neigh-boring Russia, whose fleet isheadquartered in the area, ac-cess to the Black Sea is a vitalconcern.

The U.S. cannot play a sig-nificant role in resolving this cri-sis. Good relations with Russiaare essential while good rela-tions with Ukraine are secondaryat best. The internal divisions inSyria, Egypt, and Iraq are simi-lar. I believe it is always a seriousmistake to get involved in whatcan be thought of as deadly fam-ily quarrels. To date, Obama hasmanaged to avoid that error.

Theodore Roosevelt com-mented that it was best to“speak softly but carry a bigstick.” The most striking exam-ple of that strategy was the con-tainment policy molded byGeorge Kennan in the 1950s for

handling the USSR. He arguedthat in the long run, the eco-nomic and cultural strength ofthe West would prove superiorto that of the USSR. While theUnited States would vigorouslyact in defense of non-Soviet Eu-rope, we did not openly supportsubsequent armed insurrectionsin East Germany or Hungary,and we only gave indirect sup-port to later political rebellionsin Poland and Czechoslovakia.It took thirty more years for theUSSR to collapse, but not oneAmerican combat solder was in-volved. I think Obama is pursu-ing a similar strategy regardingIran.

At the end of his presidency,Eisenhower, a man who knewthe realities of war, warned thenation to beware of the growing“military industrial complex.” Hefeared the country would inad-vertently develop a permanentwar economy. Since that time,the U.S. has indeed emerged asthe world’s premier arms dealerin the world and has taken partin numerous coups and warsthat mainly benefited ourtransnational corporations.

Kennedy had to resist enor-mous military pressure to invadeCuba, an action that likelywould have set off World WarIII with the USSR. Reagan,hardly a dove, also rejected thebellicose military views givenhim when he met with Gor-bachev in Finland, a meetingthat ultimately brought an endto the Cold War.

Obama has avoided the ad-venturism and deceits that tookus into the ill-conceived invasionof Iraq. On issues like electronicsurveillance of Americans and areckless use of drones, however,he has been severely criticizedby activists of the Left and theRight.

I think we should avoidsports terminology like beingnumber one when discussing in-ternational affairs. That suggeststhere are “winners” and “losers,”which is not helpful in resolvinginternational conflicts. We arecurrently the world’s economicand military superpower, butwhat often gives us true inter-national clout is our democraticculture, not playing policemanto the world. I think Washington,Roosevelt, and Eisenhower gotit right: sometimes doing less ac-complishes more.

WHAT’S YOUR OPINION?

On World Stage, Does U.S. Need Swagger or Subtlety?

By Dan Georgakas and Constantinos E. Scaros

From time to time, an issue emerges andinspires various minds to converge, often atodds with one another, to discuss it. Hopefully,collective enlightenment will result from suchconversations. The Ancient Greeks did that in

the Agora, the original marketplace of ideas,and we, their modern-day descendants, aspireto continue that tradition.

We respect one another’s opinion very much,but often times we will disagree on particularissues. We would never fabricate a differenceof opinion for the sake of writing an interestingcolumn.

Rest assured, anything we write here areour sincere, heartfelt thoughts.

We will share them with you every twoweeks. We hope you enjoy them, and we lookforward to your taking part in the discussionas well – by contributing letters to the editor inresponse, and/or commenting on our website:www.thenationalherald.com

VIEWPOINTSTHE NATIONAL HERALD, MARCH 8-14, 2014 13

Lost in the shuffle of scandalssurrounding Greek banks is thatthe one of biggest heists wascommitted by the two partiesruling the country they tookturns ruining for the last fourdecades.

Prime Minister AntonisSamaras’ New Democracy Cap-italists and his partner-in-crimethe PASOK Anti-Socialists re-ceived 37 million euros ($50.8million) in free money from thepublic treasury under a law –voted by the lawmakers whocontrol the government – allot-ting themselves the slush fundcash based on the percentage ofthe vote they get.

You’d think 50 million bucksmight be enough to run a polit-ical party, but New Democracyand PASOK instead used theirshare as collateral to get 232million euros ($318.7 million)in “loans” from Greek banks.

Only they weren’t reallyloans because they’re not beingpaid back because the banks –dependent on the governmentfor state deposits and 50 billioneuros ($68.6 billion) for recapi-talization – either forked overthe dough or they wouldn’t getthe quid pro quo.

A pretty good deal: put up37 million and get 232 millionback – 16 percent collateral. Butit’s even better for the banks.Give New Democracy and PA-SOK 37 million and get back 50BILLION – a 1,351 percent re-turn on investment.

Leandros Rakintzis, Greece'sindependent but essentiallypowerless Inspector-General ofPublic Administration, toldReuters the game is obvious."This is all about the exchangeof favors," he said. "These par-

ties cannot pay thedebt so it's a viciouscircle in which theycome to depend onthe banks. It createsan interdependenceof politicians andbanks."

Except that thehypocrisy runsdeeper. While Sama-ras and his cohort,PASOK leader Evan-gelos Venizelos –who was madeDeputy Premier/For-eign Minister in re-turn for backingharsh austerity measures – areinsisting that Greeks buried bypay cuts, tax hikes, and slashedpensions have to pay their loans.

New Democracy and PASOKdon’t and weasels have nothingon Venizelos who, while financeminister in a previous PASOKgovernment, supported a mora-torium on foreclosures to helppeople who couldn’t pay be-cause of austerity imposed bythe government.

With his party at 3-5 percentin polls, Venizelos, who can’tstand being out of the limelight,then went along with ending theprotection to allow banks – flushwith 50 billion euros of interna-tional bailout money that isn’tgoing to social services – to seizepeople’s homes, none of thempoliticians.

Samaras is just as heartless.He’s reneged on so manypromises to protect people, in-cluding the gullible of the Dias-pora who invested in Greeksbonds only to be nearly wipedout when the government hitthem with 74 percent losses,that you’d need a Cray Super-

computer to keepcount.

The big ques-tion is where the232 million euroswent because PA-SOK doesn’t payits rent or staff somaybe if the bankscared (they don’t)they could startchecking placeslike Switzerland,Luxembourg, Lon-don, and the Cay-man Islands. Noone will ever knowbecause the parties

don’t keep an accounting anddon’t have to worry about beinginvestigated because they gaveimmunity to the loan officerswho gave them the free money.It’s a swell game if only you’repart of it.

This is Modern Greek mathfrom the people whose ancientancestors perfected it. The nexttime you want some free moneyfrom the bank, say $100,000 ina personal loan you have nochance of repaying, tell themyou have a car worth $12,000,around the same 8-to-1 ratiodeal New Democracy and PA-SOK got.

So it’s curious why the gov-ernment is going after the for-mer heads of the failed state-owned Hellenic Postbank forgiving out 500 million euros($674.39 million) in bad loans,which prosecutors said was ascam almost as good as that PA-SOK and New Democracy cameup with.

Two years ago, Costas Tsi-maras, New Democracy’s Gen-eral Manager, told Reuters theparty was trying to repay its

loans but couldn’t, and he saidthey should be restructured,which is code for not payingthem back in full.

That’s the deal that manyGreek households wanted whenthe government violated its con-tract with them by cutting theirpay, but doesn’t want them todo the same to banks, which areessentially private ATM’s forpoliticians.

“It will be very difficult forthe parties to pay back the debtif there is no arrangement.Down the road, a political deci-sion needs to be made to giveparties the capacity to servicetheir liabilities, some type of set-tlement on these loans,” Tsi-maras said.

You can bet that political de-cision will be made becausethat’s the favored tactic of peo-ple like Samaras and Venizelos,who’ve never held real jobs,never missed a meal, never gota late notice from the electriccompany, never had to stand inline at a hospital, never had toscrounge through the glovecompartment of their Mercedeslooking for change to buy sou-vlaki or milk for a hungry child,and never had to worry aboutpaying banks because banks arethere to pay them.

Now Samaras is going to askthe Troika of the EuropeanUnion-International MonetaryFund-European Central Bank(EU-IMF-ECB) to let Greecewalk away from much of the$325 billion it owes in bailouts.If the Troika won’t, he can justfall back on the same ploy: don’tpay them at all. That’s the realGreek Way.

[email protected]

The Crimean Peninsula hasseen much pain and certainlywar in its history. As is the casewith much of Russia’s past, theacquisition of territory had asmuch to do with empire build-ing as with security. Throughouthistory, Russia has faced inva-sion and industrial scale killing,most notably by the Mongols,and later by the Nazis. It mayexplain part of the recent ac-tions by President Putin andwhy he has received so muchsupport from the Russian peo-ple.

Until the late 18th century,Crimean Tatars maintained amassive slave trade with the Ot-toman Empire and the MiddleEast, exporting about 2 millionslaves from Russia and theUkraine between the 16th and18th centuries. In 1769, the lastmajor Tartar raid, which tookplace during the Russo-OttomanWar (1768-1774), resulted in20,000 Russians and Ukrainiansbrought to the slave markets inIstanbul and other markets ofhuman trade in the Middle East.

In 1774 the Russians occu-pied the Crimea and in 1801 theregion became officially part ofRussia. From 1853 to 1856,Great Britain, France, and Italyinvaded the region during theCrimean War, underscoring Rus-sia’s vulnerability to seaborne aswell as land invasions. Duringthe German invasion of the So-viet Union, the Nazi armies cap-tured most of the CrimeanPeninsula, including Sevastopol(Russia’s only all-year roundwarm water port) during whicha large number of Tartars andother Muslim minorities in theCaucasus assisted the Germans.For this, Stalin deported mostof the Tartars and Chechens toCentral Asia, and it was not un-til after Stalin’s death in 1953that they were slowly allowedto return. Evidently, no love islost between the Russians andtheir Muslim minorities.

On 19 February 1954, thePresidium of the Supreme So-viet of the Soviet Union issueda decree transferring the Crimeafrom Soviet Russia to the SovietUkraine. The transfer of theCrimea to the Ukraine was a"symbolic gesture," marking the300th anniversary of theUkraine becoming part of theRussian Empire. After the col-lapse of the Soviet Union, theCrimea eventually became an

autonomous regionof the new Ukrain-ian state in ex-change for theUkraine giving uptheir nuclearweapons to Russiaand agreeing to along-term leasethat gave the Russ-ian fleet access tothe port of Sev-astopol.

All thesearrangements andterritorial adjust-ments were interimat best, and rela-tions between Russia and theUkraine underwent periods ofstrain. For one thing, the newrelationships between Russiaand the former Soviet republicstook place during a period inwhich Russia was negotiatingfrom a position of weakness.The Soviet empire had comecrashing down, transformingthe Soviet Union from a superpower to, at best, a weak middlepower – its nuclear arsenal, airforces, missile armies, and fleetsrusting. During the Yugoslav cri-sis in the 1990s, Russia waspowerless to prevent the NATOair attack against Serbia, a tra-ditional Russian ally, and laterhad to stand by as NATO ex-

panded into theBaltic states,Poland, andCzechoslovakia. Atone point, Georgia,the home of JosephStalin, nearlyslipped away fromMoscow’s control,which would havecreated another hu-miliating submis-sion for the newlyformed Russian Re-public.

Standing indowntown Moscowand looking out to

the world, Russia is practicallylandlocked and hemmed infrom all sides. For a country thathas faced invasion from theMongols, Napoleon’s France, acoalition of Britain, France, andItaly, and the German invasionof 1941-1944 (which cost theRussians over twenty-seven mil-lion lives) security is a primaryfactor as much as image.

The geographic location ofthe Ukraine makes that countrya critical part of Russia’s securityand economy. Russia supplies40% of Europe’s oil and gas, allof which passes through theUkraine. If the Ukraine hadjoined the EU and later NATO –as was the case with Poland, the

Baltic states, and Czechoslova-kia – it would have broughtNATO’s medium range missileswithin immediate striking dis-tance of Russia. Furthermore,the Crimea, along with its vitalport of Sevastopol, would havebeen lost to Russia and conceiv-ably become a NATO naval basein the future.

Turkey, a member of NATO,remains in control of the Straitsand thus the access in and outof the Black Sea; losing accessto Sevastopol would have meantthat Western Russia would belandlocked for a good part ofthe year.

Under these circumstances itis not surprising that PresidentPutin took back the Crimea. Itis an aggressive move and onethat threatens to destabilize theUkraine – but then so were theactions of the EU to try and wooa critical part of Russia’s sphereof influence into its fold. Thereis no doubt that the Crimea isnow lost to the Ukraine, thequestion that remains is howmuch further will Putin go? Theinternational community has re-acted with predictable outrageat Russia’s aggression with theexception of some symbolic ges-tures, but little else.

President Obama has ex-pressed the indignation felt bymost of the world at the Russiantakeover of the Crimea, but it isa measured response and mod-erate. Certainly it is evident tothe American President thatRussian security is a major fac-tor motivating Putin to react ashe has thus far and it is possiblethat the US could accept as afait acompli at this most recentaction but that will depend onhow far Putin is willing to go.

If Putin is prepared now toshow restraint and accept acompromise with respect to theUkraine’s potential relationshipwith the EU, he might just man-age to hold on to the Crimeawith minimal consequences. Onthe other hand, if the Russianpresident moves against theUkraine proper and attempts torecast it as a Russian puppetstate then there will be a muchwider crisis with dire conse-quences.

André Gerolymatos is Directorof the Stavros Niarchos Founda-tion for Hellenic Studies atSimon Fraser University in Van-couver.

Are the U.S. and Russia Heading toward a New Cold War?

LETTER FROM ATHENS

How PASOK and New Democracy Robbed Greek Banks

by ANDYDAbILIS

Special to The National Herald

At this writing,Russian troopshave occupied theCrimean Peninsula.President Obamaand NATO leadershave threatenedRussia will pay anunspecified price,but events are mov-ing fast.

This, in turn,has caused theWashington Posteditorial board andother gentlemenwho cheered usinto Iraq to beat thewar drums and demand we “dosomething.” The demand to “dosomething” may be one of thelast vestiges of bipartisan policyremaining in Washington.

Obama may soon go down inpolitical lore as the Presidentwho “lost the Ukraine.” He “en-couraged the Ukrainians tostand up to the Russians” andthen betrayed them by not in-tervening. He joins the distin-guished company of Eisenhowerwho betrayed Hungary in 1956,Lyndon Johnson who aban-doned Czechoslovakia in 1968and George Bush the Youngerwho betrayed Georgia in 2008.

Step back and take a breath!Short of starting a nuclear ex-change, we have no credible mil-itary option, the same as duringthe Cold War. Our foreign policyestablishment still thinks in ColdWar terms rather than deal withthe complex multipolar worldwith shifting alliances and lim-ited capacity determine eventsin which we now live. Impor-tantly, we lack a clear-eyed anddispassionate understanding ofwhat motivates the Russians. AsAmericans we ignore history.

The Ukrainian crisis has itsroots in Josef Stalin’s decision tocreate the Ukrainian Soviet Fed-erated Republic in the 1920scompounded by Khrushchev’stransfer of the Crimea from Rus-sia to the Ukraine in 1954. Stalinhad taken over a huge ethnicallyand religiously diverse Empirewith the vaguest of internal bor-ders ruled by a God-anointedEmperor through a large inter-related land-owning nobility.Lacking divine anointment,Stalin held this vast country to-gether through the CommunistParty whose ideology tran-scended ethnicity and religion.He mobilized its diverse leader-ship by creating ethnic home-lands (“federated republics”),governed by local communists.To ensure, however, that na-tional unity flowed only fromthe Communist Party, he drewthe boundaries of each federatedrepublic so that its ostensibleethnic group was rarely a ma-jority.

The Nazi invasion almost un-did Stalin’s system. WesternUkrainians, heavily Catholic,welcomed the Nazis. So manythousands joined the GermanArmy that Hitler created a spe-cial multi-division Ukrainian for-mation known as Vlasov’s Army.Fortunately for the world, theGermans proved so brutal thatStalin could unify Soviet Rus-sians and non-Russians alike todefeat the Germans. Russo-Ukrainians remember this asvividly as Serbs remember theCroatians fighting with theNazis.

The system finally disinte-grated with the end of commu-nism in 1979 and each Republic,most of which were artificialconstructs, became independent.The process proved ugly but thelarger states, sobered by the im-plosion of the central system,stayed intact. The small Cauca-sus states were not so lucky.Stalin’s machinations had somixed Armenians, Azerbaijanis,Georgians, Abkhazians and Os-setians in each other’s territorythat the lid blew off; the 2008

Russian – Georgianflare-up illustratesthe continuing in-stability.

With thebreakup of theUSSR, the Crimearemained inside theUkraine but Russiacontrolled the BlackSea naval bases andethnic Russians thelocal autonomousg o v e r n m e n t .Ukrainian unitymight have survivedthe East-West com-petition after inde-

pendence had not all leadership,both Ukrainian and Russian eth-nics, been so criminally corrupt.Eastern Europe’s potentiallyrichest country grew poorer thanits neighbors further exacerbat-ing ethnic rivalries.

Tito copied Stalin in Yu-goslavia after World War II, cre-ating “republics” with minoritiesruled by the Communist Party.In Yugoslavia’s case, ethnicgangsters took power andplunged the country into civilwar. NATO, led by the UnitedStates and Germany, created aterrible precedent in Yugoslaviaby picking sides and helped Al-banian Kosovo secede from Ser-bia while helping Croatia to ex-pel its Serb population. TheRussians see us as hypocrites;we helped Kosovo secede fromSerbia but deny Russia the rightto do the same with Crimea.

From Moscow’s vantagepoint, we treated Russia as thePerpetual Enemy. We expandedNATO and the EU to Russia’sborders but made it clear thatRussia itself could never applyfor membership. Russia threwoff communism but saw theWest facilitate its transformationinto a pitiful, corrupt, crony-cap-italist economy governed by adrunken clown and plunderedby oligarchs. Vladimir Putin in-herited a country eager to regainits rightful place in the sun andparanoid about the Westernthreat. He has brilliantly ex-ploited our failure to realize thatour economic seduction of theBaltic republics and the currentattempt to draw the Ukraine intothe EU sphere feeds that para-noia. In Russian eyes, we sup-ported an aggressive GeorgianPresident, exaggerated the Iran-ian threat so we can put missileson Russia’s borders, destroyedRussian influence in Libya andare trying to close down theRussian naval bases in Syria.Now, we are pushing Ukraine todo the same in the Crimea.

We do not see our actions asthe Russians see them and thishobbles our policy. We separateSyria, Ukraine, and Georgia intoneat unrelated issues; Moscowsees them as a coordinatedAmerican/NATO plan to under-mine Russia. We must, of course,pursue interests that clash withthose of Russia, but realistically.We must first correctly analyzeour relationship with Russia.Punitive and diplomatic mea-sures can cause pain but are in-sufficient unless we know theprice Russia is prepared to payto retain control of the Crimea.Do we negotiate a deal on which,Russia loses Syria and we backdown on the Ukraine. Or is thereanother point of contact?

Until we understand the re-alities and allow the diplomatsto work, we cannot deal effec-tively.

The Hon. Ambassador Theros ispresident of the U.S.-Qatar Busi-ness Council. He served in theU.S. Foreign Service for 36years, mostly in the Middle East,and was American Ambassadorto Qatar from 1995 to 1998. Healso directed the State Depart-ment’s Counter-TerrorismOffice, and holds numerous U.S.Government decorations.

We Must Try UnderstandingMoscow Even if We Disagree

by AMb. PATRICK N.THEROS


by DR. ANDREGEROLYMATOS


GUEST EDITORIALS

The National Herald welcomes manuscripts representing a variety ofviews for publication. They should include the writer’s name, address,and telephone number, and be addressed to the Editor, The NationalHerald, 37-10 30th St., long island City, Ny 11101. They may alsobe e-mailed to [email protected]. we reserve the rightto edit any manuscripts that we publish, and we do not return orotherwise acknowledge unpublished ones. Due to considerations ofspace we enforce a strict 850-word upper limit.

A children's drawing is placed on flowers at the site to markthe of death protesters during recent clashes with riot policein Kiev, Ukraine, Tuesday, March, 4, 2014.

AP PHOTO/EFrEm lukATSky

VIEWPOINTS14 THE NATIONAL HERALD, MARCH 8-14, 2014

By Raphael J. MasterjohnSpecial to The National Herald

A book review of Foundersof Faith by Harold Rosen (“JewsNot First Monotheists; Jesus NotFirst Virgin Birth?” by Constan-tinos E. Scaros, Nov. 1)set off afirestorm of comments, particu-larly by Emmanuel Karavou-sanos’ letter to the editor "Ex-clusionary Christianity is FifthCentury Thinking” (Jan. 25).Most recently, we published Fa-ther John Artemas’ response toKaravousanos’ comments: Kar-avousanos Should Be Excommu-nicated for Heresies,” (Feb. 15).The debate continues with thecommentary below, by lay priestand nonagenarian Raphael J.Masterjohn.

Having heard of some of hisactions and having read hisbook, The Gift of Mystical In-sight (Authorhouse, 2007) I un-derstand Emmanuel Karavou-sanos.

Having read the excellent re-sponse of Father John Artemas,it occurred to me that I couldcontribute to the discussion be-cause of Mr. Emmanuel’s age:some people would defend hisideas because he is an nice 81year-old man.

Having reached my 90thbirthday, I can speak freelyabout him as a man nine yearshis senior without it seeming asif I am leaning on him becauseof his advanced age.

My father, who came fromNisyros, taught us children thetruth of our Orthodox faith. Inthe pre-WWII days as a youngadult, I spent a year searchingevery religion in the world, us-ing library books and encyclo-pedias. After exploring variouspagan religions, I searched theentire history of the papacy andProtestant groups, seeking truthabove everything.

Concluding my research Isaid to my wife: “Papa was

right! Orthodoxy is the only truefaith without errors or heresies.”I was so excited and so happyto be a Greek Orthodox Christ-ian! To learn details of our faithfrom elders, such as the judg-ment which is to come, with thesheep on the right hand and thegoats on the left hand of Christ.These elders presented me toArchbishop Michael, who thenordained me a lay preacher.

In the 1950s and 1960s Ispoke in nearly every church inthe NY Metropolitan area, andwe published a periodical calledThe Light of Orthodoxy. We alsoheld weekly religious gatheringsat 10 East 79th St. NYC.

I never stopped, for I am andwill be eternally certain that wehold the truth which descendedfrom heaven. Even now I con-tinue with spreading the truththrough my Orthodox Christianb l o g :thetruechrist.blogspot.com, inwhich I have proved and willcontinue to prove beyond doubtthat Holy Orthodoxy is the trueChurch. Not established by us,but by our Lord Jesus Christ.

Emmanuel Karavousanospreaches another Gospel, onewhich attacks the true Gospelof Christ. His opinions challengeevery truth that Jesus spoke. Hedoes not confess that Jesus is

the Christ, who came downfrom heaven, and he says ofhimself that he is not a ChristianGreek. But he does pose as oneto get into Greek churches!

He does not believe in the Or-thodox Creed, baptism, holyCommunion, in Priests and Bish-ops, or in the Divine Liturgy, thefinal judgment, eternal life, oreternal punishment, for he onlybelieves in himself. Mr. Karavou-sanos does not believe that Christis the God-man born of theTheotokos. He does not believethe divinely inspired Bible. Heeven declares himself to be dou-ble-minded, urging that parentsteach their children our Ortho-

dox Faith, while he himselfpreaches against it as being false!

James says of people like Mr.Karavousanos: “Cleanse yourhands you sinners, and purifyyour hearts you doubleminded.”

John, the disciple beloved ofChrist would say Mr. Karavou-sanos is a deceiver and an-tichrist: “For many deceivershave entered the world, who donot confess that Jesus Christ iscome in the flesh. This is a de-ceiver and an antichrist. Who-ever transgresses an does notabide in the doctrine of Christ,does not have God.”

This is America, of course,

and so Mr. Karavousanos hasthe right to believe whatever hechooses. But showing himself tobe inimically disposed towardChrist, he should not be permit-ted to continue what he nowdoes. He goes into Greek Ortho-dox communities and preachesagainst Christ in the templeswith icons of Christ, His Mother,and the Saints. These structureswere built by faithful OrthodoxChristians, to glorify Christ inwhom they believed. If he de-sires to preach his doctrine, heshould not be permitted to des-ecrate a holy place. Let him goelsewhere, and be banned fromthe holy Churches whereinChrist dwells.

Further, he is not ashamedto identify himself as an atheistas he denies the three-personTrinity, saying “God is a just astate of mind.” In his view, thereis no God and Creator of allthings visible and invisible. Butthe Lord speaks of him in HolyScripture: “the fool says in hisheart, there is no God.”

Father Artemas declared thetruth in his love for Mr. Em-manuel, that he ought to be

excommunicated. This is notcruel, but may prove beneficialand could wake him up to seethe danger he is in by insultingthe one who will be his Judge.

Finally, those who areweaker in faith can be woundedby false teachings. For the sakeof our children and grandchil-dren, we ought to followthrough on action to stop Mr.Karavousanos’ diatribe againstour Holy Faith, or else we willbe to blame.

Christ warns: “Whoever doesnot confess me before men, himI will not confess before my Fa-ther who is in heaven.”

Raphael J. Masterjohn,ordained a lay priest by Arch-bishop Michael, is author of theblog thetruechrist.blogspot.com.

Is Contradicting the Orthodox Faith Healthy Freedom of Speech or Dangerous Heresy?

By Georgios TheocarisSpecial to The National Herald

Usually an economy, after asevere debt crisis, enters thestage of deleveraging. Bydeleveraging we simply mean areduction of the total amount ofdebt in the economy.

Today, people often confusedeleveraging with recession,due to the similarities betweenthe two phases. While bothphases show significant similar-ities, they differ on one key ele-ment: interest rates.

During recessions, the cen-tral bank lowers interest ratesmake lending cheaper, in orderto boost spending and revive theeconomy. However, duringdeleveraging, interests rates arealready very low (empiricallythe range is between 0-0.5%).Consequently, any attempt for

further reduction in the interestrates is either impossible orwould have a very little real ef-fect on the economy. So, whatare the options left duringdeleveraging?

Under such circumstances,the total amount of debt in theeconomy can be reduced withthe right combination of policiesincluding: cutting spending,debt restructuring, redistribu-tion of wealth, and monetaryexpansion. A successful debt re-duction – a successful delever-age – heavily depends on strik-ing the right balance of theabove policies.

In our days, as the EuropeanCentral Bank (ECB) does not al-low the supply of new money(monetary expansion), the Eu-ropean Union's (EU) choice ofpolicy mix cannot achieve theoptimal balance. This adds extradifficulty to Europe's deleverag-

ing process, and more specifi-cally in Southern Europe. Theeconomies in these countriesshow deflationary tendencies,meaning that they already facea falling demand, which couldbe mitigated through monetaryexpansion.

To understand in depth whatactually happens in a debt crisis,let’s follow step by step, how thekey economic actors react. Atfirst, in order to reduce debt,people usually reduce spending.It is important to realize, here,that in an economy, a citizen’sspending is another’s citizen in-come. Hence, a reduction inone’s spending results in a re-duction of the other’s income.

In this environment, govern-ments, businesses and house-holds reduce spending in orderto save money and reduce debt.However, in reality the oppositeoccurs, because of reduced in-

comes and economic contrac-tion, debt is increasing ratherthan decreasing.

The reduction of income andspending even has a negative ef-fect on the profitability of theprivate sector. Eventually, busi-nesses start to have difficultiesin meeting their liabilities.

Furthermore, borrowers areunable to repay their lenders,thus, the latter resorting to fore-closures. However, the value ofassets that borrowers hold, havedeteriorated due to the weakeconomic conditions. Even ifboth parts conciliate on a fore-closure, a loss will occur – com-pared to the original agreement.

Therefore with the objectiveto minimize losses, both partiesagree to proceed with the re-structuring of the debt.

Debt restructuring simplymeans that lenders agree: on re-ceiving either a smaller amount

than the initial originated, or onextending the duration of theloan or even on reducing the in-terest rate of the loan. The para-dox of the debt restructuringprocess is that it actually in-creases debt and not decreases.

At this point, there is a needfor the government to interveneand solve the debt crisis prob-lem.

The priority of the govern-ment is to raise revenue, boostspending and help the weakestmembers of society with tar-geted social services. The easiestway to increase revenue isthrough taxation.

However, given the economicconditions, a tax increase is noteffective and the tax-collectiveauthorities end up having lessrevenue.

If the state continues its pol-icy of strengthening the socialbenefits as revenues fall shortof expenses, it will drive thecountry's economy to fiscaldeficit.

Therefore, in order to avoidfiscal derailment while strength-ening social cohesion, govern-ments usually implement wealthredistribution policies. They de-cide to the proportionally im-pose larger taxes on the “richer”than on the “poorer.”

However, the most wealthy,often struggle to maintain thestandards of their own wealthdue to the shrinking economyand even more so with the im-plementation of additionaltaxes. At the same time, thepoorer have less chances of be-coming richer and increase theirspending. This has an overallnegative effect on the shrinkingeconomy.

Increased liquidity seems tobe the adequate response insuch acute financial distress.This brings up the question,who can increase liquidity onshort notice? The Central Bank.

As the Central bank buysgovernment bonds, it lendsmoney to the state, which candistribute it in to the economythrough targeted programs.While the inflation resultingfrom increased money suppliesis often feared, empirically inthe long term, it can help to re-pay the country's debt. That is,if it is controlled and there isonly a gradual increase usually

between 2 to 3%.Still, the ECB does not en-

hance liquidity, during SouthernEurope's deleveraging process.Consequently, these countriesseek to increase their liquiditythrough other means, such asdirect foreign investments.Forming the major influx of newcapital in these economies, for-eign investment have thus be-come an essential element totheir balance.

However, in order to attractforeign investments, these coun-tries are required to stabilizetheir financial system and im-plement structural reforms. Thisis frequently achieved throughthe recapitalization of financialinstitutions, followed by the cre-ation of a certain degree of flex-ibility in the private sector. Thelatter is intended to strengthenentrepreneurship in order tohelp reduce private debt.

In short, in order to achievethe right balance and graduallyreduce private debt, the publicdebt is increased! As the privatesector revives, unemploymentdeclines, stabilization of the realestate market occurs in parallelwith an increased economic ac-tivity.

This is the first time that thepublic investments begin toshow returns. Revenues gradu-ally go up, consumption in-creases and the economy re-vives. All these contribute to thedeleveraging of the economy'sdebt and new growth.

For an economy, deleverag-ing is a critical process, similarto a heart transplantation in themedical world. It requires an ac-curate diagnosis of the problem,in-depth understanding of thesolution process and the selec-tion of the best policy in thegiven economic environment.

We have seen several suc-cessful examples of deleverag-ing in the U.S. in 1930 and2008, in England in 1950, inFinland, Japan and Sudan in1990, and in Spain and Italy in2010.

In contrast, Germany in 1920is a typical example of unsuc-cessful deleveraging, as it re-sulted in hyperinflation andhuge social costs.

Georgios Theocharis is an econ-omist based in Washington, DC.

Understanding Deleveraging and its Paradoxes: it’s Not the Same Thing as a Recession

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